What is rehabilitation? Why do we need it?

What is rehabilitation? What is rehabilitation training? How should rehabilitation be carried out? Are acupuncture, massage, and physical therapy rehabilitation? Here, we will give you a systematic answer.

Acupuncture and massage are just one of the methods of rehabilitation treatment . They, together with various treatment methods such as electricity, light, magnetism, ultrasound, thermotherapy, joint mobilization, muscle strength training, stretching training, breathing training, balance and coordination training, transfer training, etc., form a large family of rehabilitation treatment. Some patients and their families who have experienced rehabilitation treatment should be familiar with these treatment methods.

So what is rehabilitation? Why do we need rehabilitation exercises?

The word “rehabilitation”, whose literal translation is “recovery” or “restoration of original rights, status, qualifications”, is translated as “rehabilitation” in Hong Kong and “rehabilitation” in Taiwan. It refers to the application of all measures aimed at alleviating the functional impairment of patients and making them become a whole without discrimination physically, socially and psychologically.

Rehabilitation services are provided in a multidisciplinary team approach, with rehabilitation doctors as team leaders. Team members include physical therapists (PT), occupational therapists (OT), speech therapists (ST), rehabilitation nurses, rehabilitation engineers, psychotherapists, social workers, and other rehabilitation-related personnel. The main focus is on the functional loss of the disable, and repeat, active and educational methods are adopt to actively solve various disability problems of the disabled.

The scope of rehabilitation includes: rehabilitation medicine, rehabilitation engineering, educational rehabilitation, social rehabilitation, vocational rehabilitation, etc., which together constitute comprehensive rehabilitation. The content of rehabilitation includes: formulating appropriate short-term and long-term rehabilitation goals, formulating targeted and gradual rehabilitation intervention measures and methods, and constantly adjusting and revising them in a timely manner.

Among them, rehabilitation medicine is the most important aspect.

Rehabilitation medicine, clinical medicine, preventive medicine and health care medicine constitute the basic functions of modern hospitals.

Rehabilitation medicine aims to accelerate the recovery process after human injury, prevent and/or alleviate the degree of residual functional impairment, help the disabled return to society, and improve their quality of life.

Basic principle: Conduct rehabilitation assessment and rehabilitation training in the early stages of the disease.

Target customers: patients with various long-term functional disorders, including the disabled, patients with various chronic diseases, the elderly, patients recovering from acute diseases and sub-healthy people.

Three levels of prevention:

1. Preventing the occurrence of diseases through active measures and health education is primary prevention;

2. After the disease occurs, secondary prevention is to avoid complications, secondary functional disorders and disabilities through active rehabilitation intervention;

3. For serious functional impairment and disability, actively carry out rehabilitation treatment or functional substitution measures to improve their function and quality of life. This is the third level of prevention.

The main contents of rehabilitation medicine include basic rehabilitation, rehabilitation function assessment, rehabilitation therapy, clinical rehabilitation and community rehabilitation.

In what aspects does the value of rehabilitation medicine manifest itself?

First, early rehabilitation intervention can prevent the occurrence of disuse syndrome and misuse syndrome , and can also reduce their occurrence. Taking spinal cord injury patients as an example, early rehabilitation treatment can reduce the mortality rate of patients and prevent lung infection, urinary tract infection, deep vein thrombosis, etc.

Secondly, rehabilitation therapy helps solve problems that are difficult to solve during clinical treatment, including long-term functional impairment and loss. For example, for patients with complete spinal cord injury, orthosis can be use to improve or restore walking ability, and wheelchairs can be use to enable patients to move longer distances and adapt to complex terrain, etc.

Third, rehabilitation medicine can also reduce clinical workload and improve efficacy. For example, early rehabilitation treatment for patients with acute myocardial infarction is one of the basic measures to help patients be discharge from the hospital within 7-10 days; patients with hypertension and diabetes can also reduce the amount of medication through rehabilitation exercises…

Finally, rehabilitation medicine has a strong humanistic color. Through rehabilitation treatment, people with disabilities can improve their mental state, improve their quality of life, better adapt to social life, and safeguard their human rights and dignity.