Habilitation refers to the process that helps a person learn, keep, or improve skills and functional abilities that they may not have ever developed or are not developing normally, as expected at their age, such as a child who is not talking as expected for his or her age.
Habilitation contrasts with "
Rehabilitation" as latter relates to restoring earlier-existing skills or functioning, which currently stand lost maybe due to injury or illness or circumstances.
Also, habilitation differs from rehabilitation as it is primarily aimed at helping children and youth with limitations learn new functional skills they have never been able to perform, while rehabilitation targets more adults as focusing more on regaining a previously held functional skill. A Swedish study on the implementation of World Health Organization's International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health, version for Children and Youth (ICF-CY) in Swedish habilitation services found that the ICF-CY enhanced awareness of families' views too, which corresponded to organizational goals for habilitation services.
Background
Habilitation and Rehabilitation are described primarily in relation to the field of health. However, the inter-relationships of recipients health to the other elements of daily living, including those related to employment, education, or simply life skills is recognised in the several international agreements formulated till-date to address the subject of "Rehabilitation" - like the
International Labour Organization
The International Labour Organization (ILO) is a United Nations agency whose mandate is to advance social and economic justice by setting international labour standards. Founded in October 1919 under the League of Nations, it is one of the firs ...
(ILO)'s
Vocational Rehabilitation and Employment (Disabled Persons) Convention and the UN Standard Rules on the Equalization of Opportunities for Persons with Disabilities (the latter constituting as a precursor of the ''UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities'' adopted in 2006).
The
UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) is the first such document which mentions both habilitation and rehabilitation distinctly (in Article 26).
The (CRPD) calls on States to "organize, strengthen and extend comprehensive habilitation and rehabilitation services and programmes, particularly in the areas of health,
employment
Employment is a relationship between two party (law), parties Regulation, regulating the provision of paid Labour (human activity), labour services. Usually based on a employment contract, contract, one party, the employer, which might be a cor ...
,
education
Education is the transmission of knowledge and skills and the development of character traits. Formal education occurs within a structured institutional framework, such as public schools, following a curriculum. Non-formal education als ...
and
social services
Social services are a range of public services intended to provide support and assistance towards particular groups, which commonly include the disadvantaged. Also available amachine-converted HTML They may be provided by individuals, private and i ...
." However, Article 2 (Definitions) of the convention does not include a definition of disability. The Convention adopts a
social model of disability
The social model of disability identifies systemic barriers, derogatory attitudes, and social exclusion (intentional or inadvertent), which make it difficult or impossible for disabled people to attain their valued functionings. The social mod ...
, but does not offer a specific definition. The convention's preamble (section e) explains that the Convention recognises:
Importance
Habilitation is distinctly separate from Rehabilitation - though the term Habilitation and (re)Habilitation can be considered complementing. A Russian Federal Law (No. 181-FZ - “On the social protection of disabled people in the Russian Federation (RF)”) describes rehabilitation and habilitation as aimed at eliminating or possibly more fully compensating for limitations in life activity.
The term "Habilitation" is considered relatively free of certain stereotypes associated with "Rehabilitation".
Infact as per one author - "''... human beings need habilitation and rehabilitation of various forms throughout their whole lifetimes; except intermittently, (as) we are not self-sufficient...''".
See also
*
Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities
The Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities is an international human rights instrument, international human rights multilateral treaty, treaty of the United Nations intended to protect the rights and dignity of persons with Disabil ...
*
Developmental psychology
Developmental psychology is the scientific study of how and why humans grow, change, and adapt across the course of their lives. Originally concerned with infants and children, the field has expanded to include adolescence, adult development ...
*
Rehabilitation - disambiguation page
References
{{reflist
Rehabilitation medicine
Special education