Rehabilitation: Keeping Pace with Societal Needs

Excerpt

The field of rehabilitation has grown substantially in the past century. Physical, occupational, and speech therapies all formed professional associations around the 1920s, with continued growth as World War I generated a large need for rehabilitative services [1‐3, 7, 8]. Subsequent developments in medicine and governmental programs, the advent of World War II, and the outbreak of polio continued to advance the field of rehabilitation [3, 8]. By the 1950s, rehabilitative services were understood to be of value, with practitioners keeping pace with the re-conceptualization of disability, the increase in life expectancy, and the rising number of people living with chronic conditions [3, 6, 8]. Recognition that all people should pursue their greatest potential quality of life, no matter their age or physical barrier, has propelled the field of rehabilitation even further to successfully meet that mission. …