According to the World Health Organisation, rehabilitation is defined as the use of all means aimed at reducing the impact of disabling and handicapping conditions and enabling disabled people to achieve optimal social integration. Therefore, patients are treated by a multi-disciplinary health care team, including psychologists. For many patients, medical rehabilitation brings about major adjustment, emotional difficulties, trauma, anxiety and/or even depression.
These psychological challenges thus have a rippling effect on one’s ability to participate in the rehabilitation process effectively. The role of the psychologist is to ensure a sense of mental wellbeing to enhance their functional performance so that patients are enabled to function to their optimal physical, emotional and social potential, in spite of their disability. Essentially, the mental and physical aspects of each individual works interconnectedly and both are treated for patients to reach optimal wellbeing.
Medical settings, specifically medical rehabilitation services play a key role in delivering care to patients experiencing mental health difficulties during their admission as an inpatient. For example, as a psychologist in this setting, I had approached a patient who was being seen by their doctor. The doctor said, “I am here to assist you with your medical needs, but the psychologist is here to assist with your mental health needs because I can only give you a pill, but I cannot help you deal with your emotions and mood.” This was a significant point in the patient’s rehabilitation progress as she had improved significantly once she had received mental integration into her treatment which improved motivation and mood in recovery.
Overall, the benefits to implementing psychological therapies within a medical rehabilitation setting include increased patient satisfaction and improved patient outcomes, such as reduced readmission rates and improvement in mental wellbeing. The main benefits of psychological interventions is focused on promoting positive mood, reducing depression, and fostering confidence in self-efficacy.