Date created:  Date last modified: February 15, 2026 What is Social Rehabilitation? Latvia, with a population of 1.86 million, has 333 professionals in social rehabilitation, employed in social rehabilitation services managed as part of its social services. Is it appropriate to separate social rehabilitation? If not, are professionals specialising in social rehabilitation a helpful innovation? Iluta Bērziņa from Latvia asked me these questions.

Rehabilitation, education, and many oter services are an integral part of human life; we all need help to adjust and adapt to changes in our lives, incl illness

Date created:  Date last modified: 7 February, 2026 Recently, I discussed my General Theory of Rehabilitation with Peter Halligan, friend and co-author of The biopsychosocial model of illness; a model whose time has come. We considered the idea of no rehabilitation, and he pointed out that it was equally difficult to define no education. We went on to discuss how analysing life through the lens of the holistic biopsychosocial model of health placed rehabilitation, education, healthcare and many other matters in a broader context, highlighting their conceptual similarity.

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Rehabilitation Matters is an evangelical, informative site covering all aspects of rehabilitation including patient experience, training, and stimulating ideas.

Four rehabilitation neurology capabilities added to rehabilitation expertise enable a specialist service: disease diagnosis, symptom, prognosis, rare phenomena

Multidisciplinary teamwork is essential for rehabilitation's success. But the team is part of a larger network, and is itself a network of different professions

Relational Quantum Mechanics suggests reality is a sequence of events (interactions), Applying this to people emphasises the crucial nature of narrative.

Date created:  Date last modified: 21 January 2026 Rehabilitation is challenged by many slippery words whose meanings are endlessly debated. Even defining rehabilitation is difficult, and concepts such as disability, impairment, and participation all become diffuse as one gets closer.  This is true more broadly in health; it cannot be defined. We seek concrete entities, but they elude us.

Neurological Rehabilitation requires the same rehab expertise as other specialities, but demandss much specialist neurological expertise.

First published: January 14, 2026 Last modified: January 14, 2026 “How should we organise training in neurological rehabilitation?” I have recently been asked to give a webinar on this. This post considers the essential rehabilitation expertise needed in all areas of rehabilitation, and how it should be taught and evaluated. It will do so from first principles, starting with an outline of the core skill required in all rehabilitation.

Defining disability is challenged by uzzy boundaries, fluctuating capacity, & performancee or capability. Its core is interraction with the environment.

What is a diagnosis? Consider: the purpose, valid & invalid uses, a systems approach, especially person-level maladies. Multi-axial formulation should be used.

First published: November 24, 2025 Last updated: November 23, 2025 In What is a diagnosis? Part 1, I explained that diagnoses can generally be divided into biomedical diagnoses supported by observable features that can be independently verified, and syndromic diagnoses based on specific collections of symptoms without independent observable features. Neither category has a complete, consistent taxonomy (system of classification).

Rehabilitation initially (1533) restored social status; the First WW precipitated the development of healthcare rehab. 14 key concepts encapsulate rehabiitation

Most clinicians, teams and organisation intend to give person-centred care. Five attributes of a clinical encounter demonstrate it. Managerial culture stops it.

Biopsychosocial disequilibrium occurs when homeostasis and allostasis fail to balance the demands on a person with their adaptive resources, causing unwellness

First published: November 14, 2025 Last updated: November 14, 2025 How can we tell when something is wrong with us? In a popular post (6,800 views over four years), Disease, illness, sickness, and disability, I discuss different ideas related to being unwell. I did not explain how someone knows they are unwell. The answer might seem obvious: you develop symptoms, but why and how?

Homeostasis maintains stability using feedback to target a response to changes. It applies to physiological and biopsychosocial states (e.g. Maslow's needs)

Malady refers to an unpleasant (evil) feeling or experience due to a bodily problem. It encompasses all aspects of ill health. It could be a non-judgmental term.

First published: November 6, 2025 Last updated: November 6, 2025 In January 1781, The London Medical Journal published a 19-page review of a book written by Dr Tiffot, a member of the Société Royale de Londres, entitled Traité des Nerfs et de leurs Maladies. (Treatise on the nerves and their maladies). Since then, malady has been used in the context of a person’s health, but not extensively.

Information About Rehabilitation Matters, its purpose, ownership, author, governance, values, principles and how to contact and feedback.

This paper addresses bioethical considerations in end-of-life healthcare. It explores Islamic bioethical concepts of karāma and ḥurma, framing them as homeomorphic equivalents to categories of human d...

Enablement & treatment theories for rehabilitation & the associated RTSS system describing treatments will improve clinical care & research: strength/weakness

First published: October 31, 2025 Last updated: October 31, 2025 John Whyte and a multiprofessional team from several North American rehabilitation centres have worked on rehabilitation theory for two decades. Early in their work, they distinguished between enablement theories and treatment theories. They have applied their concept of treatment theory to develop a principled approach for describing all rehabilitation treatments, known as the Rehabilitation Treatment Specification System, or RTSS.

Rehabilitation thinking is a person-centred, holistic cognitive approach based on the general theory of rehabilitation and biospychosocial model of illness.

Life goals are long-term, personal goals based on core values, relationships, worldview & identity, reflecting purpose and meaning. Hope & Maslow's needs help.

Rehabilitation thinking is holistic and its greatest unacknowledged strength, the basis of its unrecognised success with spinal cord injury, stroke, etc.

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Objective To propose three areas of cognitive expertise as the foundation of rehabilitation, uniting the many varieties of rehabilitation. Five issues The foll...

Pending Publication

What makes a specialist rehabilitation service? Rehabilitation thinking, person-centred teamwork, and a service with demonstrated specialist competencies,

This cluster randomized clinical trial compares the effectiveness of foundational vs enhanced implementation support for enrolling and retaining patients in a group physical therapy program for knee o...

Healthcare theory is rarely discussed. It dictates policy and is based on the biomedical model, causing difficulties. Biopsychosocial healthcare is needed.

Objective To review challenges associated with health economic studies in rehabilitation, providing a context for the new Clinical Rehabilitation collection of ...

This study aimed to explore healthcare professionals’ experiences with informal coordination across healthcare levels in complex neurological rehabilitation services in Norway.Semi-structured quali...

A basic biopsychosocial framework is crucial for rehabilitation analysis, is person-centred, improves the biomedical model, and emphasises context & environment

Healthcare systems are founded on a biomedical healthcare model, but person-centred holistic care needs a biopsychosocial healthcare model with a broad scope

Measurement in rehabilitation is crucial clinically, in service improvement, & in research. The data collection tool defines validity & influences repeatability

Objective To investigate the prognostic value of the Subgroups for Targeted Treatment (STarT) Screening Tool adapted for concussion (STarT-C) on persistent symptoms and disability at 6–9 months follow...

Select your preferred language for Cochrane reviews and other content. Sections without translation will be in English.

An allied health weekend service in subacute inpatient stroke rehabilitation can improve patient and organisational outcomes. However, there is insufficient evidence to justify the role of a speech an...

Defining rehabilitation expertise is best achieved using high-level training outcomes, capabilities in practice, covering professional behaviours and expertise.

Managing complexity and uncertainty is crucial because both are central features of rehabilitation and the expert will freely acknowledge both to the patient.

The UKROC database collected data using FIM+FAM from most specialist rehabilitation inpatient units from 2011. Analysis of data has altered clinical practice.