Integrating rehabilitation into health systems: A comparative study of nine middle-income countries using WHO's Systematic Assessment of Rehabilitation Situation (STARS).

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVE: The need for rehabilitation is growing due to health and demographic trends, especially the rise of non-communicable diseases and the rapid ageing of the global population. However, the extent to which rehabilitation is integrated into health systems is mostly unclear. Our objective is to describe and compare the nature and extent of integration of rehabilitation within health systems across nine middle-income countries using available Systematic Assessment of Rehabilitation Situation (STARS) reports. METHODS: Cross-country comparative study with variable-oriented design using available rehabilitation health system assessment reports from nine middle income countries. FINDINGS: The integration of rehabilitation into health systems is limited across countries. Governance and financing for rehabilitation are mostly established within health ministries but weakly so, while health information systems are characterized by no available data or data that is insufficient or not routinely generated. The overall numbers of rehabilitation workforce per capita are low, with frequent reports of workforce challenges. In most countries the availability of longer-stay, high-intensity rehabilitation is extremely low, the availability of rehabilitation in tertiary hospitals is modest and in government supported primary care its almost non-existent. Multiple concerns about rehabilitation quality arose but the lack of empirical data hinders formal appraisal. CONCLUSION: The study sheds light on the limited integration of rehabilitation in health systems and common areas of difficulty and challenge across nine middle income countries. All countries were found to have a basis on which to strengthen rehabilitation and there were often multiple areas within each health system building block that required action in order to improve the situation. Findings can inform governments, regional and global agencies to support future efforts to strengthen rehabilitation. Additionally, our study demonstrates the value of STARS reports for health policy and systems research and can serve as a model for further comparative studies.

Meeting the current and future health-care needs of Sri Lanka's ageing population.

Sri Lanka is one of the fastest-ageing countries in the world. This rapid demographic transition is expected to result in one quarter of the population being elderly by the year 2041. Profound challenges face the country as a result, especially with respect to planning adequate elderly-oriented services in the social-care and health-care sectors. In response to this need, many initiatives have been put in place to promote and protect the welfare of older people, and these rights have been inscribed in law. Within the health sector, despite the wealth of policies and initiatives in recent years, it is clear that the existing health infrastructure and systems still require strengthening, reorientation and coordination, to meet the needs of the growing population of elderly individuals. Lessons learnt from the successes in reducing the maternal mortality ratio can be applied to strengthening preventive services at the community level, to ensure active healthy ageing in Sri Lanka. Engagement of specialist medical officers of health and general practitioners to provide preventive and curative primary-care services would reduce current pressures on higher-level services. Expansion of dedicated elderly-care wards and units at the tertiary level would restructure care towards changing patient demographics. The key to success in these strategies will be increasing the proportions of the medical, nursing and allied professional cadres who have been trained in geriatric medicine. Such capacity-building in the care of the elderly will allow a move towards provision of multidisciplinary teams that can manage the complex physical, social and psychological needs of the older patient.