Journal of Rehabilitation Medicine: Special Issue 50-4bokBW | Page 6

308 Guest Editorial development. This can be achieved only if reha- bilitation, as one of the main health strategies, is integrated in health systems. In light of the ageing population, the increase in chronic health condi- tions and higher survival rates after severe diseases and injury, the significance of rehabilitation as a response to increasing levels of disability world- wide is clear. Rehabilitation services, moreover, are not restricted to a minority of “people with disabilities”, but are for everyone in the population who can benefit from them. This special issue deals with some aspects of the challenge of scaling-up rehabilitation in low- and middle-income countries. Part 1 provides general discussions of the nature and importance of rehabilitation as a health strategy, in light of demographic and epidemiological trends, strate- gies for strengthening rehabilitation at the national level, developing techniques for assessing rehabi- litation services, and implementing clinical quality management for rehabilitation services. Part 2 provides examples of country-level initiatives and projects that can contribute to better implementa- tion of rehabilitation services. Also in this part there are examples of the role of NGOs and, in particular, the International Society of Physical and Rehabilitation Medicine (ISPRM), in scaling up rehabilitation services. Future steps to be taken are: • Disseminate information about principles of rehabilitation and rehabilitation needs. • Analyse the life situation of persons expe- riencing disability and use the results to work on the implementation of rehabilitation in health systems. • Develop methods to systematically describe rehabilitation services and to analyse service implementation at country levels. • Describe prototype rehabilitation services and define standards for rehabilitation service implementation. • Develop and implement quality management in rehabilitation based on the International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health (ICF). www.medicaljournals.se/jrm • Support projects to implement rehabilitation services into health systems. • Support training programmes for rehabilitation professionals (including Community-based Rehabilitation Workers). • Last but not least, civil society organization should work towards the goal of Rehabilitation 2030 and take action to develop a common voice to advocate for these goals. REFERENCES 1. World Health Organization. Disability. Rehabilita- tion 2030: a call for action (cited 2017 Nov 14). Available from: http://www.who.int/disabilities/ care/rehab-2030/en/. 2. World Health Organization. Rehabilitation in health systems. Geneva: WHO; 2017. 3. United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. Convention on the rights of persons with disabilities. G.A. Res. 61/106/611, 2006. (Cited 2017 Nov 14). Available from: http://www.un.org/ esa/socdev/enable/rights/convtexte.htm. 4. World Health Organization & The World Bank. World Report on Disability. Geneva: WHO; 2011. 5. World Health Organization. WHO Global Disability Action Plan 2014–2021: Better health for all people with disability. Geneva: WHO; 2014. 6. World Health Organization. Geneva 2015 United Nations: A/RES/70/1. Goals to transform our world: the 2030 agenda for sustainable development. New York: UN; 2015. Christoph Gutenbrunner, MD, PhD, FRCP 1 , Jerome Bickenbach, LLB, PhD 2,3 , Kristian Borg, MD, PhD 4 , Boya Nugraha, MS, PhD 1 , John Melvin, MD, PhD 5 and Gerold Stucki, MD, MS 2,3 From the 1 Department of Rehabilitation Medicine, Hannover Medical School, Hanover, Germany, 2 Department of Health Sciences and Health Policy, Faculty of Humanities and So- cial Sciences, University of Lucerne, Lucerne, 3 Swiss Paraplegic Research (SPF), Switzerland, 4 Department of Clinical Sciences, Karolinska Institutet, Danderyd Hospital, Stockholm, Sweden, and 5 Sidney Kimmel Medical College, Thomas Jefferson University, Philadelphia, PA, USA E-mail: [email protected]