Journal of Rehabilitation Medicine: Special Issue 50-4bokBW | Page 16

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C. Gutenbrunner et al.
ning Medical Rehabilitation Subcommittee of the
ISPRM-WHO-Liaison Committee has therefore
developed a framework and methodology for
systematically conducting advisory missions at
the country level.
This paper describes the development of
principles for carrying out missions of the Reha-
bilitation Advisory Teams (RATs) in support of
National Health, Disability and Rehabilitation
Plans (NHDRPs) at the country level. Further-
more, this paper describes the development and
field testing of methods for situation assessment,
the development of recommendations and imple-
mentation of projects. • to develop a matrix and checklists to analyse
existing rehabilitation services as well as to
identify gaps in service provision;
• to establish a Rehabilitation Services Advi-
sory Team of experts with global and regional
health systems understanding who can provide
guidance;
• to provide advice to the requesting country by
Rapid Response Projects providing support to
build up rehabilitation services and educational
programs for the rehabilitation workforce, as
requested by the WHO.
BACKGROUND • As a starting point for the development of a
concrete plan and tools that the Rehabilitation
Services Advisory Teams can use to carry out
its activities, the following questions were
formulated by the RAT:
• How should the process of the mission be
structured and what are the roles of national
government, the WHO and the team itself?
• How should sound and relevant information
about the prevalence of disability and the
need for rehabilitation at the country level be
gathered?
• How should the country-level governance and
policies for rehabilitation service implementa-
tion be investigated and the relevant stakehol-
ders for rehabilitation determined?
• How should existing rehabilitation services be
systematically described and core competencies
of rehabilitation professionals investigated?
• What should be the benchmark for service
implementation and professional development?
• How should a consensus among stakeholders
be achieved and the recommendations prio-
ritized?
• How can the results be reported in a systematic
and feasible way in order to support the imple-
mentation of the recommendations?
WHO Global Disability Action Plan 2014–2021
In the WHO GDAP 2014–2021, the objective “to
strengthen and extend rehabilitation, habilitation,
assistive technology, assistance and support servi-
ces, and community-based rehabilitation” is made
concrete in terms of the following actions (4):
• to provide leadership and governance for de-
veloping and strengthening policies, strategies
and plans;
• to provide adequate financial resources to
ensure the provision of appropriate habilita-
tion and rehabilitation services and assistive
technologies;
• to develop and maintain a sustainable work-
force for rehabilitation and habilitation;
• to expand and strengthen rehabilitation and ha-
bilitation services, ensuring integration, across
the continuum of care, into primary (including
community), secondary and tertiary levels of
the healthcare system;
• to make available appropriate assistive tech-
nologies that are safe, of good quality and
affordable;
• to promote access to a range of assistance and
support services; and
• to engage, support and build the capacity of per-
sons with disabilities and their family members
and/or informal caregivers.
Furthermore, the WHO GDAP 2014–2021 aims
to strengthen research, including the life situation
of persons with disabilities.
WHO-ISPRM Collaboration Plan 2014–2017
The WHO-ISPRM Collaboration Plan 2014–
2017, specifies the following activities in light
of the WHO agenda for rehabilitation:
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Questions formulated by the Rehabilitation
Advisory Team
Based on these questions a plan for advisory
missions was developed and a Rehabilitation
Service Assessment Tool (RSAT) and Rehabilita-
tion Service Implementation Framework (RSIF)
proposed. All 3 of these implementation elements
were tested and refined in 2 missions that were
conducted on behalf of the WHO in Egypt (6)
and the Ukraine (7). An additional mission was
conducted in collaboration with Handicap Inter-
national (HI) in the Democratic People’s Republic
of Korea (DPRK; 8).