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Rehabilitation

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Synonyms

Habilitation

Definition

According to the World Report on Disability, rehabilitation is “a set of measures that assist individuals who experience, or are likely to experience, disability to achieve and maintain optimal functioning in interaction with their environments” (World Health Organization [WHO], 2011).

Description

Rehabilitation literally means “redressing” (Latin habitat – dress). While there are many definitions of this concept, the world health organization (WHO) has defined rehabilitation as “a process aimed at enabling disabled persons to reach and maintain their optimal physical, sensory, intellectual, psychological and social functional levels. Rehabilitation provides disabled people with the tools they need to attain independence and self-determination.” Thus, the aim of rehabilitation has traditionally been seen as facilitating the normalization of human functioning after injury, disease, or due to congenital defects. It is usually said to comprise a number of...

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References and Readings

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Correspondence to Bengt H. Sjölund .

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© 2013 Springer Science+Business Media, New York

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Sjölund, B.H. (2013). Rehabilitation. In: Gellman, M.D., Turner, J.R. (eds) Encyclopedia of Behavioral Medicine. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4419-1005-9_924

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4419-1005-9_924

  • Publisher Name: Springer, New York, NY

  • Print ISBN: 978-1-4419-1004-2

  • Online ISBN: 978-1-4419-1005-9

  • eBook Packages: MedicineReference Module Medicine

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