Recovery and rehabilitation during and after the COVID-19 pandemic: framework for supporting people

9. Principles of Rehabilitation Framework

a) Leadership

Attentive compassionate leadership at government and local levels, enabling collaboration, collective endeavour, and enabling the aspirations of the National Performance Framework, is essential because rehabilitation has far reaching health, social and economic benefits, with the potential to enable greater participation in education, employment and community living.

b) Person Centred

Rehabilitation focuses on the person not the disease and where the individual with their support from friends, family and, or carer where appropriate is empowered to lead and manage their situation and remain as independent as possible; again this aligns with the ambitions of our national policy landscape as set out in the Chief Medical Officer’s Report, Personalising Realistic Medicine [5].

c) Outcomes Focussed

Personal outcomes approaches mean acknowledging individual strengths and working towards establishing a shared sense of purpose to which everyone can contribute, including the person, their family, carers and other community resources, as well as services.

d) Multidisciplinary and Multiagency Workforce

Rehabilitation in any setting should include physical, mental, social assessment and intervention utilising a biopsychosocial model collaborating towards a common goal. This should be undertaken through a strong Multidisciplinary Teams approach including mental health and be multiagency including a trauma-informed workforce where a unified approach across professional groups, and systems is essential.

e) Innovation

New ways of working in response to coronavirus (COVID-19) challenges have led to creative solutions and good practice. New and evolving models of working need to be encouraged alongside the promotion and continuation of best practice supported where possible by evaluation.

f) Education and Research

Partnership development of a skilled workforce considering educational, resources and emerging research evidence supporting rehabilitation outcomes for people.

g) Digital

There can be considerable benefits associated with the use of digital platforms and the information they generate (video consultation, home and health monitoring; apps; social media; clinical records) to support direct care and self-management to promote a safe and convenient way of patients accessing services to improve efficiency and cost-effectiveness for better outcomes. There is recognition that some sections of the population are more likely to be digitally excluded and there must be caution not to reinforce social exclusion of these groups and to recognise where additional support may be required.

h) Quality Improvement

Implementation and improvement actions and supports should be informed by the elements that form part of effective quality management systems – specifically quality planning, control, assurance and improvement that is linked to leadership, learning systems and processes that promote collaboration with staff and people involved with services.