The need for rehabilitation stems from the practical needs of the community. It has been clearly shown that nowadays wellbeing, capabilities and the requirements for carrying out an independent life are placing greater demand than can be met by the national or local authorities. There is a clear need for multivocational cooperation between institutes and organizations.

Wellbeing theories are based on the fact that humanity is a sum of physical, cognitive and social wellbeing. Rehabilitation as a science combines these topics into a single entity. So many branches of science, e.g. psychology, social science and neuroscience are now considering the phenomena of behaviour and wellbeing through their own scientific techniques and are striving to solve the same questions – but greater advances can be made if these scientists work in cooperation. This kind of integration is revolutionizing how we view rehabilitation. Multidisciplinarity is the foundation for multivocationality.

It does seem that in practical terms cognitive needs and adopted operational modes are still based on some kind of instinctive knowledge and scientific findings only are adopted after many years. At the moment, we are in such a phase where development of rehabilitation activities needs to start adopting a scientific approach, incorporating aspects of research into the practical work done by rehabilitation organizations and policy planners.

Society for Rehabilitation Research and Development has started its activity as an association of medical rehabilitation at first as a cooperation organization of rehabilitation research uniting workers in the field of specialized health care. In its 20 years of existence, the association has become the leader and a spokesperson for a wide multidisciplinary and multivocational rehabilitation community and a recognized coordinator of scientific guidelines.

As I take up the tasks of the chairman, I thank my precursors for this development work. At the moment, we can state that rehabilitation is both a practical branch and a field of research which is rapidly developing and I do hope that we together can successfully advance this process.

Aarne Ylinen
Chairman

Contact information

Aarne Ylinen
Head, Chief Physician
Finnish Association of People with Physical Disabilities
Käpylä Rehabilitation Centre, Synapsia
Nordenskiöldinkatu 18 B
P.O. Box 103
FI-00251 Helsinki, Finland
Tel. +358 9 777 07254
GSM +358 50 3006660
Fax +358 794 734
firstname.lastname@invalidiliitto.fi