A Policy Perspective on the United States Rehabilitation System

The rehabilitation system in the 1970's will be markedly different in its structure and activities from what it was in the past. The bases for this prediction are the current challenges to the traditional model of professional–client relationships; an increase in activity on the part of the client and his family in the rehabilitation process; a changing ideology and value system concerned with the right rather than the privilege of individuals to have good medical care and rehabilitation; and the high financial costs of institutional care of the disabled. A proposed solution is to develop for the rehabilitation system a "built-in environment."