WORLD HEALTH ORGANIZATION
CALL FOR CASE STUDIES
GUIDELINES ON HEALTH-RELATED REHABILITATION
Deadline for submission of case studies: July 20 2014
The Disability and Rehabilitation team is pleased to announce a call for case studies to accompany the
publication of the World Health Organization Guidelines on health-related rehabilitation.
Background
The Guidelines on health-related rehabilitation aim to provide guidance to governments and other relevant
actors on how to develop, expand and improve the quality of rehabilitation services (including assistive
technology) in less resourced settings in line with the recommendations in the World report on disability
chapter on Rehabilitation. They also support the implementation of the rehabilitation aspects of the United
Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) and the WHO global disability action plan
2014-2021: Better health for all people with disability. The guidelines position rehabilitation within the context
of universal health coverage and the WHO "Framework for Action" for strengthening health systems, which
consists of six clearly defined building blocks: leadership and governance; service delivery; human resources;
medical products and technologies; financing; and information systems1.
Purpose
Case studies are used in many WHO publications to highlight examples of good practice in terms of policies,
programs and other measures. The WHO is calling for evidence-based case studies of good practice that
demonstrate progress related to one or more of the “building blocks” mentioned above. Case studies must
specifically relate to rehabilitation and successful case studies will be published in the Guidelines on healthrelated rehabilitation. See examples of case studies in the chapter on rehabilitation in the World report on
disability http://www.who.int/disabilities/world_report/2011/en particularly boxes 4.2; 4.4; 4.5; and 4.6.
The examples should also reflect the eight guiding principles of the CRPD and we welcome details of how
people with disabilities and user groups have been actively involved in the formulation, implementation,
monitoring or evaluation of the project, program or intervention presented as a case study.
Examples of case studies may include:

Policy development on health-related rehabilitation and/or integration of health-related rehabilitation in
mainstream health policies.

Successful implementation of policies on health-related rehabilitation. What were the key factors that
facilitated successful implementation?
1
http://www.who.int/healthsystems/strategy/en

Scaling-up of service delivery to reach rural communities and marginalised groups (i.e. mobile units,
integrating rehabilitation into primary health care, training of community health workers).

Effective links between institutional based rehabilitation and community services (i.e. CBR).

Setting up professional training programs, or scaling up of existing programs, such as physical rehabilitation
medicine, physiotherapy, occupational therapy, prosthetics and orthotics, speech therapy among others.
We are especially interested to understand how programs were set up, the partnerships involved, how
these training programmes influenced the creation of positions with the health and social sectors and how
the training was financially sustained.

Improving access to assistive technology, looking at one or more of the following affordability, availability
and usefulness , local production and technology transfer.

Sustainable mechanisms of financing rehabilitation and assistive technology provision.

Effective strategies that involved partnerships with people with disabilities and/or their representative
organisations (DPOs) for example to set up services or monitor or evaluate progress.

Programs on improving access to rehabilitation for people with mental health problems or evidence of
rehabilitation programs preventing complications of non-communicable diseases.

Others
Requirements
-
Must be submitted in the format contributor’s template case studies in English language (template is
available in the application package on the WHO website). If the case study is selected for publication,
further information and supporting documents can be provided in any of the UN official languages (Arabic,
Chinese, French, Russian or Spanish).
-
Appropriately referenced.
-
Between 500 and 1,000 words.
-
May contain photos, which need to be provided with exact copyright details. If individuals are portrayed a
Disclaimer of Consent to use the photo should accompany the submission (template is available in the
application package on the WHO website).
Submission
We welcome contributions from all stakeholders and we are particularly interested in case studies from lowand middle-income countries.
Case studies should be submitted before July 20 2014 to:
Charlotte Axelsson, WHO Disability and Rehabilitation Team: charlotte.eteo@gmail.com
with a copy to:
Rachel McLeod-MacKenzie, WHO Disability and Rehabilitation Team: mackenzier@who.int