Sounding Board * A view from the USA

This issue of Work highlights Swedish models of health care, particularly in the area of rehabilitation. It is natural, for one whose cultural and clinical experience has been concentrated in the United States, to compare and contrast the underlying assumptions of the approaches taken in the two countries. Larsson, in this issue, outlines what Paulsson, in her article, terms a 'holistic' view taken towards vocational rehabilitation in Sweden. While the term connotes somewhat different concepts to the American health care provider, the meaning for Swedish citizens is clear: the societal powers-that-be (government and social services) understand that medical and socioeconomic consequences of trauma and other accident-induced infirmity are related, and virtually co-equal, parameters in the prognosis for return to productive life. The assumption is that "man is basically active and needs to find aims and meaning in life" (Larsson, S., 1995) [1]. Included in this view is the