Faculty Articles

Is Rehabilitation Psychology In need of Rehabilitation

Document Type

Article

Publication Title

Rehabilitation Psychology

ISSN

0090-5550

Publication Date

5-2000

Abstract

Discusses the "Golden Age" of rehabilitation psychology, when rehabilitation of persons with traumatic brain injury was the fastest growing areas in all health care, and comments on the current state and possible future directions of the field. The author's care plan for the future includes a focus on chronic conditions in addition to the field's current primary focus on end results (disability). The new focus would involve branching out beyond the field's traditional work in inpatient and outpatient rehabilitation facilities. The author points out rehabilitation psychology's unique focus on a team approach to treatment, and notes that this model can be transported to treating other chronic conditions, typically seen in more acute or primary settings. In an effort to introduce their model into hospitals around the country, rehabilitation psychologists need to expand their clinical practices, modify their training model, and broaden the scope of their research efforts. As corporations are concerned about disability and chronic illness and are largely unaware of what rehabilitation psychology could offer them, a logical step in their care plan is to work more closely with corporations and employee benefit services

DOI

10.1037/0090-5550.45.2.107

Volume

45

Issue

2

First Page

107

Last Page

111

Peer Reviewed

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