Two recent judgements from the Court of Protection have concerned the conflict between a person’s deep-held beliefs and what the clinical team judged to be in the person’s best interests. One case involved KT, a 53-year-old man in a prolonged disorder of consciousness where the clinical team considered it was no longer in his best […]
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First published: October 21, 2023 Last updated: March 22, 2025 Personal factors (WHO ICF) are an invalid construct. They cannot exist separate from the person as independent influential factors. The person has characteristics, which vary according to the person’s role at the time. The World Health Organisation’s International Classification of Impairment, Disability and Handicap, published
Personal factors in rehabilitation Read More »
First published: October 16, 2023 Last updated: October 17, 2025 What theory underlies the delivery of healthcare? The design of hospitals, services, policies, and almost every other aspect of healthcare in the UK occurs without reference to any theories. Yet, as Priscilla Alderson stressed in 1998, theories are crucial: “… theories are at the heart
The biopsychosocial model of illness was born in 1977, with a reasonably well-documented gestation. Its growth and development are easily tracked, showing changes and improvements, and anyone can quickly discover the model. In contrast, the medical model, better termed the biomedical model, has been gestating and growing since about 1500, when the Scientific Revolution started.
What is the unique contribution of a speech and language therapist to the rehabilitation team’s collective expertise? I persuaded a brave colleague to write this post. Harriet Peel was the speech and language therapist in the rehabilitation team at the Dean Neurological Centre, a care home where I work. The content after the Table of
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“But what do doctors do in rehabilitation? “I have been asked this question since I became interested in rehabilitation. Many healthcare professionals, including managers, worryingly state, “We don’t need doctors in our rehabilitation service.” When asked to justify this, the usual reply is, “Well, we can always ask their GP or consultant if we need
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What type of long-term rehabilitation goals should we set with our patients in rehabilitation? I have previously argued that they should be made at the level of social participation, usually several years in the future. These rehabilitation aims are typically challenging to specify for a person, and often, they seem similar to the goals of
A patient’s father recently asked me, “What is the usual rehabilitation curriculum for someone with problems like my son’s?”. Until then, I had only considered a rehabilitation curriculum in the context of educating and training healthcare professionals about rehabilitation. I had never thought of a patient’s rehabilitation curriculum. Although I have often said rehabilitation is
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The Community Rehabilitation Alliance recently published some Best Practice Standards for rehabilitation aimed at the newly founded NHS Integrated Care Boards that manage the Integrated Care System. It recommended the formation of a rehabilitation network, and the standards applied to the network were set out and summarised in tables. I have abstracted them into a
Rehabilitation Networks – 2 Read More »
Date published: Date Last updated: February 9,2025 Rehabilitation networks are the central theme of the recently published Rehab on Track. Community Rehabilitation Best Practice Standards. Its second recommendation is to “establish a local provider rehabilitation network to include primary, secondary, tertiary health care, mental health, social care, independent and third sector providers”. Moreover, its following
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