Global Need for Rehabilitation

Charles Curtis MS, PT, DPT, MBA, Administrative Director of Outpatient Rehabilitation Services, Saint Barnabas Medical Center RWJBH & APTANJ Member

In an assessment of the worldwide needs for rehabilitation services, WHO provided a recent update based on data collected from more than 200 countries. Analyzing the data from the Global Burden of Diseases, Injuries, and Risk Factors Study (GBD) 2019, Alarcos Cieza and her colleagues (Cieza, et al, 2020) estimate that 2·41 billion people (95% uncertainty interval 2·34–2·50 billion) worldwide would benefit from rehabilitation services to achieve functioning. This staggering statistic translates into 1 in 3 people in the world needing rehabilitation care. Of the 2.41 billion people needing this care, 1.71 billion people require services in the musculoskeletal areas. This comprehensive study quantifies an increasing burden of non-mortality health losses, due partly to the aging of the world’s population, and partly to the unprecedented growth and development in different world economies. To meet these ever-expanding rehabilitation needs, we need a skilled rehabilitation health workforce to provide the care.

In response to these documented rehabilitation needs, CGFNS International, Inc. (CGFNS) and ASAHP (Association for Advancing Health Professions) formed a strategic partnership in 2019 to develop essential quality standards for the requisite knowledge and skills to deliver safe and competent rehabilitation care. Using an iterative process, these standards were field-reviewed by subject matter experts in 14 countries to achieve consensus on a set of global standards to guide the evolution of a global certification system. Applying its assessment expertise, CGFNS creates the certification system and the examinations. Applying their education expertise, select ASAHP member institutions create the curriculum and deliver the instruction to provide continuing education for global health workers seeking this global certification. Both organizations believe that the sheer scale of the global need for rehabilitation must serve as a call to action across the sectors to ensure the health outcomes of many and not the privileged care for a few.

For further details on this global initiative, please refer to the articles referenced below:

Cieza A; Causey K; Kamenov K; Hanson SW; Chatterji S; Vos T. Global estimates of the need for rehabilitation based on the Global Burden of Disease study 2019: a systematic analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study 2019. Lancet. 2020; 396: 2006-2017

To Dutka J, Oliver RE, Akinci F, et al: Global rehabilitation heath worker certification: global agenda, local imperative. Journal of Allied Health Spring 2021; 50(1):3-8