Rethinking Rehabilitation: Theory and Practice (Rehabilitation Science in Practice Series)

Rethinking Rehabilitation: Theory and Practice presents cutting-edge thinking on rehabilitation from a range of leading rehabilitation researchers.

The book emphasizes discussion on the place of theory in advancing rehabilitation knowledge, unearthing important questions for policy and practice, underpinning research design, and prompting readers to question clinical assumptions. Each author proposes ways of thinking that are informed by theory, philosophy, and/or history as well as empirical research. Rigorous and provocative, it presents chapters that model ways readers might advance their own thinking, learning, practice, and research.

Each of the 14 chapters tackles a specific issue of interest rethinking theory and practice in rehabilitation. The authors:

• Rethink core processes in rehabilitation, such as goal setting, teamwork, communication with clients, and outcome measurement
• Rethink how rehabilitation services and interventions might better ‘fit’ clients and address what matters most to them and their families
• Rethink research designs, considering how to enhance the understanding of the "why" behind the findings

This book will be especially helpful to rehabilitation professionals and students who want to develop and improve their practice, or research, but might not know where to start. With contributions from an international and multidisciplinary team, this book is essential reading for all involved in rehabilitation.

Edited by

Kathryn McPherson is a professor of rehabilitation and director of the Centre for Person Centred Research, Health and Rehabilitation Research Institute at Auckland University of Technology, New Zealand. She has a nursing and psychology background, obtaining her PhD from the University of Edinburgh, UK. Dr. McPherson’s research focuses on developing a better understanding of, and response to, what matters most to clients and their family. Recent projects include living well with a long-term condition, measuring what matters, quality of care, informing rehabilitation by psychological approaches, engagement in rehabilitation, and enhancing understanding of theory in rehabilitation. Dr. McPherson uses both qualitative and quantitative approaches latterly enjoying the application of participatory designs and a focus on implementation science.

Barbara E. Gibson is an associate professor in the Department of Physical Therapy at the University of Toronto and a senior scientist at the Bloorview Research Institute, where she holds the Bloorview Children’s Hospital Foundation Chair in Childhood Disability Studies. She is a physiotherapist who earned a PhD in bioethics and medical sciences from the University of Toronto. Dr. Gibson’s transdisciplinary research investigates how key principles (e.g. disability, normality, in/dependence) underpinning rehabilitation and societal constructions of disability intersect in producing health, inclusion/exclusion, and identity with disabled children and youth. Her work has examined key areas of health practices and policies including transitions to adulthood, independent living, optimizing activity participation, and understanding relationships between technology, identity, and social inclusion.

Alain Leplège is a professor in the Faculty of Life Sciences at the Université Paris Diderot in Paris, France. He is a psychiatrist by training and earned a PhD in philosophy from Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne. He completed his postdoc in health service research at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland. As a health service researcher he has specialized in outcome measurement, methodology, and epistemology. Dr. Leplège is the head of the Ville Evrard Mental Health and Disability Research Centre and also an adjunct professor at the Centre for Person Centred Research at the Auckland University of Technology, New Zealand.