mHEALTH-INNOVATE (41) Mobile apps: RehApp (Rehabilitation App)

26 April, 2022

Dear Neil,

We estimate that the poorest 2 billion people in this world have no or very poor access to rehabilitation services. For many of these people, community based (rehabilitation) fieldworkers represent an entry point to rehabilitation. These workers are therefore preoccupied with a broad range of tasks and responsibilities not only requiring therapeutic knowledge but also social and technical skills. Many fieldworkers, however, lack disability knowledge and skills and receive too little training and support to perform their job to the standard that is expected.

Enablement believes that with the current technological developments and the availability of such technology to even the poorest countries in the world, the situation can change. Smartphone applications can make information on rehabilitation available but also ensure that frontline field staff has ample opportunity to master the necessary rehabilitation skills to be meaningful to people with disabilities and their families.

The RehApp (Rehabilitation App) was initiated some years ago by Huib Cornielje, director of Enablement, and with financial and other forms of support from several INGOs, individual professionals and people with disabilities from a large variety of (low-and middle-income) countries. It came from an idea of making a popular, albeit heavy and thus inconvenient manual (c.f. Disabled Village Children by David Werner), easily accessible to all. Its first version was largely information-based, while the 2.0 version (which will be released in June 2022) has evolved into a more interactive application. Our ultimate goal is to have an app that will offer fieldworkers, parents/caregivers as well as people with disabilities, an instrument that they can use in various ways: search for necessary information about disability as well as suggestions for relevant rehabilitation interventions; do better - structured - assessments based on the ICF (or the F-WorWords in case of working with children); enable better goal-setting; make well-informed decisions about required interventions; use the app to monitor progress and development; and finally, offer managers a tool that gives them an overview of the people they are reaching with their services but largely will serve as a management information as well.

Huib Cornielje

Director Enablement

Editor-in-Chief DCID Journal see: https://dcidj.org/)

Chair: Foundation Cerebral Palsy Africa (CPA) see: https://www.cerebralpalsyafrica.eu/

A van Leeuwenhoekweg 38 unit A16

2408AN Alphen aan den Rijn, The Netherlands

Mobile: 0031 - 6 28485083

E-mail: h.cornielje@enablement.nl

Skype: enablement

Internet: www.enablement.nl

http://mmenable.wixsite.com/inclusionandwater

https://www.inclusive-livelihood.com/

If the rich live more simply the poor simply can live (Dom Helder Camara)

HIFA profile: Huib Cornielje is director of Enablement, The Netherlands. Professional interests: Disability and Development - rehabilitation\ Community Based Rehabilitation Impact studies Monitoring and evaluation. h.cornielje AT enablement.nl