Childhood disability and social policies

doi:10.1136/bmj.b1020

Published 24 April 2009, doi:10.1136/bmj.b1020
Cite this as: BMJ 2009;338:b1020

Editorials

Childhood disability and social policies

Developmental rehabilitation needs to extend beyond the biomedicaldimensions of disease

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

Participation (people’s engagement in life) is an essentialcomponent of the World Health Organization’s InternationalClassification of Functioning, Disability and Health.¹ The classificationconnects body structure and function (including the impairmentscaused by any disease) with their effects on activity and participation,and it puts them in the context of personal and environmentalfactors. This biopsychosocial framework reflects a social modelof disability in which a person may be disabled by externalfactors, including environmental and social forces beyond theircontrol.

Children and young people with disabilities constitute about4-6.5% of the population in many countries.² ³ ⁴ They are disadvantagedin terms of their participation and engagement in life,⁵ andthe limitations in their activity may be two to three timesgreater than for typically developing children.² In the linkedstudy (doi:10.1136/bmj.b1458), Fauconnier and colleagues assessvariations in the nature and rates of participation of 8-12year old . . . [Full text of this article]

Peter Rosenbaum, professor of paediatrics, McMaster University,

¹ IAHS Building, Hamilton, ON, L8S 1C7, Canada

rosenbau@mcmaster.ca

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