Definition
What is rehabilitation?
Rehabilitation is care that helps a person regain, develop and maintain function — to do the everyday things that matter to them. It is not a cure and not a luxury; the WHO estimates 2.4 billion people would benefit from it worldwide.
01 A definition.
Rehabilitation is a set of interventions designed to optimise functioning and reduce disability in people with health conditions, in interaction with their environment — the WHO's framing through the International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health (ICF). It spans childhood development, recovery, and lifelong support, and is delivered by a multidisciplinary workforce.
02 Who delivers it.
Rehabilitation is the work of the rehabilitation workforce — speech-language pathologists, occupational therapists, physiotherapists, behavioural therapists, special educators, audiologists, clinical psychologists and allied professionals — trained, ideally, to a shared standard with supervised practicum.
03 Why it matters at scale.
Around 2.4 billion people live with a condition that would benefit from rehabilitation, and the WHO's Rehabilitation 2030 initiative names workforce capacity a core priority. In childhood especially, timely developmental support changes the trajectory of a life.
04 How IRWFA builds the workforce.
The International Rehabilitation Workforce Alliance sets one shared competency standard, opens the largest clinical estate for supervised practicum, and keeps a shared research commons — so the workforce that delivers rehabilitation is trained to a standard the whole field can trust. It complements the RCI and does not supplant it.
The Invitation
Join the alliance that will carry this field forward. Membership is free in the establishment period; everyone eligible should join sooner rather than later.
members@irwfa.org · 9100 181 181