Right to Rehab coalition

What does a Right to Rehab mean?

The Right to Rehab is the next major health reform that needs to take place in Scotland.

The World Health Organisation (WHO) defines rehabilitation as “appropriate measures, including through peer support, to enable persons with disabilities to attain and maintain their maximum independence, full physical, mental, social and vocational ability, and full inclusion and participation in all aspects of life.” Find out more about what the WHO says about rehabilitation (this link will take you away from our website).

Rehabilitation helps people do more than just survive their condition – it helps them really live. It is vital to people living with long-term conditions or recovering after an accident, operation or illness, in order they can live as well – and as independently – as possible.

In most cases, people’s rehabilitation will require a period of intervention by health professionals. It will also often extend beyond that treatment and into long-term support within communities. At that point rehabilitation can take many forms, and is determined by people’s needs and their goals.

Without the rehabilitation they need, people are at risk of readmission to hospital, likely to need repeat visits to GPs, need additional care from their family or providers, and may struggle to return to work or live their lives to the full.

What is our objective?

We want every political party in Scotland committed to delivering a Right to Rehab. The strategic shift in recent years towards personalised, community-based services must be matched by change on the ground. We must take action now in order to meet demands on health and social care created by an increasing older population, often with multiple conditions. We are calling for:

1. A Right to Rehab which ensures that everyone has access to rehab when needed, and no-one is excluded by a ‘no rehab potential’.
2. People’s needs to be met locally by having the right workforce and professional leadership.
3. The Right to Rehab to be incorporated in a new national Health and Social Care Strategy, placing it at the heart of integrated health and social care.

Letter to the Cabinet Secretary for Health and Sport

On 17 September 2020, the Right to Rehab Coalition wrote to the Cabinet Secretary for Health and Sport, Jeane Freeman MSP, to introduce our work and calling for the adoption of a Right to Rehab.

To contact the organisers of the Right to Rehab coalition, please email – 

Elinor Jayne, Head of Influencing – Sue Ryder elinor.jayne@suerydercare.org

Kenryck Lloyd-Jones, Public Affairs & Policy Manager – Chartered Society of Physiotherapy Scotland  ljonesk@csp.org.uk

Katherine Byrne, Policy Manager – Chest Heart & Stroke Scotland katherine.byrne@chss.org.uk

End of page.