What is rehabilitation? From 1994 to 2021, while I was privileged to be Editor of Clinical Rehabilitation, I explored this in editorials. I also encouraged and selected submissions that considered, in one way or another, the central features of rehabilitation. Why? Because when I started in rehabilitation, the general attitude among doctors and other healthcare professionals was that rehabilitation was pleasant but with no evidence of effectiveness. Further, they did not think a doctor had a role to play and did not think there was anything special for rehabilitation experts to know or have skills in. In this editorial, I discuss how, as editor, I used my position to support and encourage the publication of articles that produced evidence, considered the conceptual and scientific basis of rehabilitation, and ultimately answered the above question. I illustrate this with a few specific papers published in Clinical Rehabilitation. After 30 years, I have concluded that the essential feature characterising rehabilitation is its way of thinking about the patient's problems and how to solve them. Rehabilitation is holistic, person-centred, and concerned about social integration rather than disease or disability. Moreover, there is a mass of evidence showing it benefits patients.
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http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/02692155221131248 | DOI Listing |
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