Rehab Centers: A Prospective Examination of the Impact of a Supported Employment Program and Employment on Health-Related Quality of Life, Handicap, and Disability Among Veterans With SCI.

A prospective examination of the impact of a supported employment program and employment on health-related quality of life, handicap, and disability among Veterans with SCI.

Filed under: Rehab Centers

Qual Life Res. 2013 Jan 24;
Ottomanelli L, Barnett SD, Goetz LL

PURPOSES: To investigate impact of participation in a supported employment program and impact of employment itself on health-related quality of life (HRQOL), disability, and handicap among Veterans with spinal cord injury (SCI). METHODS: We used a prospective, randomized, controlled, multi-site trial of supported employment (SE) versus treatment as usual (TAU) for vocational issues. Subjects were 157 Veterans with SCI who received either SE or TAU for vocational issues. Outcomes were examined in terms of type of vocational treatment received and whether competitive employment was obtained. Outcomes investigated were HRQOL as measured by the Veterans RAND 36-item health survey (VR-36), handicap as measured by the Craig Handicap Assessment and Reporting Technique (CHART), and disability as measured by the functional independence measure (FIM). Subjects were assessed at baseline and at 3, 6, 9, and 12 months. RESULTS: There were no significant differences between Veterans who participated in SE compared to those who received TAU in study measures. Participants obtaining competitive employment demonstrated significantly higher scores on the Social Integration, Mobility, and Occupation dimensions of the CHART. There were no observed differences in VR-36 scores or FIM scores for those obtaining competitive employment. CONCLUSION(S): This study suggests that employment has a positive effect on an individual’s ability to participate in social relationships, move about their home and community, and spend time in productive and usual roles. Inability to detect differences across other domains of handicap or any changes in HRQOL may have been due to several factors including level and intensity of employment, insufficient follow-up period, or measurement limitations.
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Assessment of physical activity in patients with chronic low back or neck pain.

Filed under: Rehab Centers

Turk Neurosurg. 2013; 23(1): 75-80
Soysal M, Kara B, Arda MN

To investigate physical activity level in patients with chronic low back and neck pain. MATERIAL and32 preoperative patients, 32 outpatients with low back or neck pain and 32 healthy controls were included in study. The physical activity level of the participants was evaluated with the International Physical Activity Questionnaire. The Oswestry Disability Index and Neck Pain Disability Index, Short Form-36, Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index and Beck Depression Inventory were used for assessment of disability, quality of life, sleep quality and depression.Statistical significant differences was found in disability, sleep quality, depression, physical activity level and quality of life scores between three groups (p < 0.05). All scores of preoperative patients were significantly lower than outpatients except sleep parameter (p < 0.05). Sleep quality, disability and depression scores of patients with chronic neck pain were significantly lower and physical activity level and quality of life scores were significantly higher than patients' with chronic low back pain (p < 0.05).Physical activity modification was found in patients with chronic low back and neck pain. Physical activity level, disability, sleep, depression and quality of life scores of preoperative patients with low back pain more affected than neck patients. HubMed – rehab

What is a Psychiatric Disability?

Filed under: Rehab Centers

Health Care Anal. 2013 Jan 24;
Rudnick A

This article aims to clarify the notion of a psychiatric disability. The article uses conceptual analysis, examining and applying established definitions of (general) disability to psychiatric disabilities. This analysis reveals that disability as inability to perform according to expectations or norms is related to impairment as deviation from the (statistical) norm, while disability as inability to achieve (personal) goals is related to impairment as deviation from the (personal) ideal. These two views of impairment and disability are distinct from the self-organization view of impairment as disrupted self-creation or disrupted self-repair and of disability as disrupted whole person self-compensation (in relation to an impairment). All these three views of disability pertain to psychiatric disability. Although there is nothing necessarily psychiatric about psychiatric disability other than the psychiatric impairment related to it, the life course and life circumstances typical of many people with (severe) psychiatric disorders may lead to disability and may thus confer some (psychiatric) specificity on this disability. This analysis may facilitate research on specific psychiatric disabilities and a broader scope for psychiatric rehabilitation.
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