Rehabilitation

Rehabilitation Perspectives

In the social sciences, a diversity of analytic and theoretical models of rehabilitation exists. Some contemporary research focuses on how discourse constructs rehabilitation, while others focus more broadly on processes of social construction. Given this dichotomy, offering a single summation of rehabilitation as a social problem is difficult. What complicates matters even more is the scope of much research in the field. Some focus on the psychological state of those who experience rehabilitation, while others focus on the effects of group dynamics on the rehabilitation process. Also, much research focuses on specific types of rehabilitation, while other research focuses on rehabilitation as a more general process. As a result, research on rehabilitation as a social problem developed concepts that focus both on specific rehabilitation practices and theories and on rehabilitation itself. That division points to some fundamental questions. For example, is vocational rehabilitation as a social problem the same as it is for substance abuse rehabilitation? How similar are the constructions of rehabilitation as a social problem for the mentally ill and the physically impaired? How might they differ?

Traditional views of rehabilitation as a social problem often led to building models that identified the different stages individuals move through to adapt to their disability or addiction. Problems arise when individuals are stuck in one stage or another. Such an approach is based on a medical model that defines disability and addiction as illness. The Americans with Disabilities Act has such a model at its base. However, many rehabilitation researchers have increasingly abandoned this stage modeling approach in favor of a quality of life perspective that focuses on an expanded conception of adaptation and life satisfaction.

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