About Rehabilitation Matters
This page is about Rehabilitation Matters and its website which aims to promote a better understanding of rehabilitation, improve rehabilitation practice, disseminate research and other information relevant to rehabilitation, and increase access to good rehabilitation for all patients who need it. It will provide education for anyone, it will provide specialist rehabilitation knowledge and skills to any health or social care professional, and it will advocate for better organisation and resourcing of rehabilitation services. As the strap line says, this site is All about rehabilitation, About all rehabilitation. I have written more about the site’s purpose here, and the site’s history and development can be seen here. You can give feedback, comment, or contact me on this page. The remainder of this page explains who I am, how the site is funded, the values and principles behind the site, and who has indicated formal interest in being associated with the site in a non-contractual, non-commercial way.
Table of Contents
Information about the site
The site was founded on November 12th, 2020, after I had been unsuccessful in obtaining a job I wanted; it was a form of goal adjustment. I was fully engaged in writing a curriculum for training (of doctors) in Rehabilitation Medicine, and very interested in education and exploring ideas around rehabilitation. I had never set up a website and had no idea how to do it, so this seemed an exciting challenge to keep me busy. It is interesting, still a challenge, and keeps me alive.
Authorship
The content is mainly written or curated by me, Derick Wade. I also welcome contributions from other people which I will edit with the agreement of the author named on the page. I am a doctor who has been interested in rehabilitation since 1980. I have experience in almost all aspects of rehabilitation: clinical work with patients, managing services, advising on local and national policies, research, education and training, and occasional recipient of rehabilitation; I edited a journal on rehabilitation, Clinical Rehabilitation, from 1994 – 2021. I refer to my work, but I also extensively refer to other publications. I, naturally, will refer to Clinical Rehabilitation, but I gain no benefit.
Although I write most content, I often draw off work published by others, questions asked of me, or other events of work that spark my interest. For example, a blog post on “Multidisciplinary, interdisciplinary, or transdisciplinary?” was my response to an email, and another on “A model of patient-centred rehabilitation” was my interpretation of an article I read.
Commercial aspects
I, Derick Wade, am the site owner and pay all costs. I do not obtain any direct financial gain, and there is little likelihood of any indirect monetary payment. There is no advertising. When I mention any conference or other educational opportunity, it is because I am interested and consider it worthwhile, and I am not paid or rewarded in any way.
My main, open and declared interest is to improve the understanding of, knowledge about, and skills in delivering rehabilitation to patients. This is not a commercial website.
Support
The British Society of Rehabilitation Medicine (BSRM) supported the site, and its successor, the British Society of Physical and Rehabilitation Medicine (BSPRM), continues this non-contractual, non-commercial affiliation. The Society for Research in Rehabilitation (SRR) also supports the site. The content of the site does not represent a formal statement of SRR or BSPRM policy, nor does either society necessarily endorse the specific content unless that is explicitly stated. There is no financial support.
I have named many other rehabilitation organisations in a section of the website on the UK national rehabilitation community. Most of these organisations know that I have mentioned them on my site, but they have not explicitly expressed support.
Values and principles
The values that guide all content are:
- Respect for others at all times, acknowledging the validity of differences;
- Justice and equity, ensuring fairness in the allocation of any resource ;
- Honesty and openness, not knowingly omitting relevant information or giving false information;
- Clarity in writing and presenting arguments or facts;
- Evidence is to be used when it is available and provided without bias.
The principles of rehabilitation that guide my writing are to:
- put the patient at the centre, not dominant but always the primary concern
- consider the patient in their context, especially their social relationships, their life narrative to this point, and the possible future narrative.
- avoid imposing professional views and jargon,
- acknowledge how much is unknown or uncertain,
- avoid presenting dogma and accepting or reinforcing stigma
- accept our twin professional responsibilities to individual patients and the population of patients
Personal aspiration
I aspire to foster a multi-professional, national rehabilitation association or college of patients and professionals. This would represent rehabilitation interests to the government, healthcare commissioners and providers, insurance companies and any other person or group. It would set standards for professionals’ rehabilitation knowledge, services, and clinical practice. It would aim to develop a rehabilitation qualification for all professionals; only doctors can do this now.
Other relevant information
The data protection policy is available here. The purpose of this website is here. You may contact me here. The website is represented on Twitter by @rehabil31319128.
Graffiti Press?
I first set up a website to publicise and sell books my wife and others published. The publisher was called Graffiti Press. I made a simple site – I knew very little about websites. When I added Rehabilitation Matters, I added it as a separate but connected site as I knew no other way!
You may look at the home page and the list of books; I particularly commend “At the going down of the sun”.
