Early rehabilitation prevents disability after earthquake: A letter to international rehabilitation colleagues.

On 20 April 2013, 3 weeks before the fifth anniversary of the devastating 2008 Wenchuan earthquake, another powerful earthquake (7.0 magnitude) stuck Sichuan province, this time in the city of Ya'an. Once again, our fellow countrymen are experiencing serious threats to their lives and health. As rehabilitation workers, we plead with all our colleagues to engage in early rehabilitation for the Ya'an earthquake victims and to use an organized early rehabilitation model, in order to minimize the suffering caused by the earthquake by treating the wounded early and thus limiting permanent physical disabilities. TargeT By implementing early rehabilitation, we should be able to improve the clinical curative effect of earthquake victims, shorten treatment times, prevent complications (and better treat those that do arise), prevent disuse syndrome in bedridden patients, prevent and better control disabilities, improve or restore injured body structures and functions, enhance or restore ability to engage in physical activities, implement secondary and tertiary prevention of disabilities, improve the degree of independence and quality of life for those who are injured, and thus allow the wounded to return earlier to society and to recover harmony. These measures have very important and realistic effects and are of profound social significance. PrinciPleS The most basic and most important principle is to prevent disability. For wounded patients who have survived an earthquake, the damage has already occurred. The first principle is to prevent secondary and tertiary disability with the help of rehabilitation therapists and rehabilitation physicians. First, the patient should take active secondary prevention measures to prevent the occurrence of disability ; as for disabled and limited-activity patients, tertiary prevention measures should be taken to prevent permanent disability or handicap to avoid effects on individual careers and social life. KeY TOPicS rehabilitation treatment should focus on 3 key topics: function , activity and participation. At the beginning of the 21 st century, the World Health Organization formally issued the international classification of Function, Disability and Health (icF), which emphasized function as the core, essential quality that will enable the injured body part to function at different levels of abnormality and in limited capacities, and which will lead to limited individual activities and social participation. rehabilitation therapists and rehabilitation physicians in clinical treatment should therefore follow the icF criteria; functions, activities, and participation should drive the fundamentals of clinical thinking and work content. SPeciFicS in clinical rehabilitation treatment, rehabilitation therapists and rehabilitation physicians …