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This study aims to deepen the understanding of insurers’ role within the return-to-work (RTW) process by uncovering and categorizing the multiple roles assumed by the insurer based on the claimant’s perceptions and identifying the underlying mechanisms that explain the relationship between perceived insurer roles and occupational rehabilitation outcomes.

The author used a qualitative approach with theory-guided content analysis to examine 24 semi-structured interviews with occupational rehabilitation claimants who had undergone occupational rehabilitation within the earnings-related pension insurance system in Finland.

The author uncovered three perceived insurer roles in relation to other stakeholders in the rehabilitation network: financier, coordinator and leader. These roles have different perceived responsibilities and influences on rehabilitation outcomes. Additionally, the author found four perceived insurer roles in relation to the claimants, which varied according to their democracy and activity levels: ally, facilitator, enforcer or enemy. Based on this study, the author recommends that insurers adopt democratic and participatory actor roles (ally and facilitator) to promote the RTW process in occupational rehabilitation.

This inaugural study applied role theory to insurers within the RTW process, developing a new framework of insurer profiles. This study reveals the dynamic nature of insurers and enhances the understanding of the connections between perceived insurer roles and rehabilitation outcomes.

The purpose of this paper is to design and develop a new robotic device for the rehabilitation of the upper limbs. The authors are focusing on a new symmetrical robot which can be used to rehabilitate the right upper limb and the left upper limb. The robotic arm can be automatically extended or reduced depending on the measurements of the patient's arm. The main idea is to integrate electrical stimulation into motor rehabilitation by robot. The goal is to provide automatic electrical stimulation based on muscle status during the rehabilitation process.

The developed robotic arm can be automatically extended or reduced depending on the measurements of the patient's arm. The system merges two rehabilitation strategies: motor rehabilitation and electrical stimulation. The goal is to take the advantages of both approaches. Electrical stimulation is often used for building muscle through endurance, resistance and strength exercises. However, in the proposed approach the electrical stimulation is used for recovery, relaxation and pain relief. In addition, the device includes an electromyography (EMG) muscle sensor that records muscle activity in real time. The control architecture provides the ability to automatically activate the appropriate stimulation mode based on the acquired EMG signal. The system software provides two modes for stimulation activation: the manual preset mode and the EMG driven mode. The program ensures traceability and provides the ability to issue a patient status monitoring report.

The developed robotic device is symmetrical and reconfigurable. The presented rehabilitation system includes a muscle stimulator associated with the robot to improve the quality of the rehabilitation process. The integration of neuromuscular electrical stimulation into the physical rehabilitation process offers effective rehabilitation sessions for neuromuscular recovery of the upper limb. A laboratory-made stimulator is developed to generate three modes of stimulation: pain relief, massage and relaxation. Through the control software interface, the physiotherapist can set the exercise movement parameters, define the stimulation mode and record the patient training in real time.

There are certain constraints when applying the proposed method, such as the sensitivity of the acquired EMG signals. This involves the use of professional equipment and mainly the implementation of sophisticated algorithms for signal extraction.

Functional electrical stimulation and robot-based motor rehabilitation are the most important technologies applied in post-stroke rehabilitation. The main objective of integrating robots into the rehabilitation process is to compensate for the functions lost in people with physical disabilities. The stimulation technique can be used for recovery, relaxation and drainage and pain relief. In this context, the idea is to integrate electrical stimulation into motor rehabilitation based on a robot to obtain the advantages of the two approaches to further improve the rehabilitation process. The introduction of this type of robot also makes it possible to develop new exciting assistance devices.

The proposed design is symmetrical, reconfigurable and light, covering all the joints of the upper limbs and their movements. In addition, the developed platform is inexpensive and a portable solution based on open source hardware platforms which opens the way to more extensions and developments. Electrical stimulation is often used to improve motor function and restore loss of function. However, the main objective behind the proposed stimulation in this paper is to recover after effort. The novelty of the proposed solution is to integrate the electrical stimulation powered by EMG in robotic rehabilitation.

In the last decade decision-makers on state, regional and local levels in Hungary gradually recognized the inevitability of urban regeneration and the opportunities the latter offers for architecture, economy and society. During the socialist era state investments focused on the forced construction of high-rise estates and inner city areas have been neglected. As a consequence of these processes urban regeneration started later in the Eastern European countries and these run-down areas could be characterised by disadvantaged positions on the new capitalist housing market. Twenty years after the change of regime stakeholders taking part in the urban regeneration process in Hungary slowly realise that problems of the built, natural and social environments overlap. Due to the change of mind first integrated urban development programmes appeared. Through these projects focusing on the rehabilitation of built and natural environments of cities experts already try to generate also socio-economic impacts. The article highlights current trends and characteristic features of urban regeneration in Hungary together with short introduction of strategies on national, regional and local levels. Main socio-economic impacts of rehabilitation processes closely related to the quality of life will also be presented through the results of empirical researches carried out in Budapest and the major Hungarian cities.

The purpose of this paper is to develop a medico-judicial framework for rehabilitation of forensic psychiatric patients in Zimbabwe.

Grounded theory of the Charmaz (2006, 2014) persuasion was used. An exploratory qualitative design was utilised. The theoretical framework that was used as a point of departure was Pierre Bourdieu’s conceptual canon. Participants were purposefully and theoretically sampled. These included the judiciary, patients, patients’ family, psychiatrists, nurses, social workers, experts in forensic psychiatric practice. They were 32 in total.

The findings reflected a need to realign the dislocation and dissonance between and within the fields of the prison system, medical system, and the judiciary. The realignment was done by co-constructing a therapeutic jurisprudent medico-judicial framework for rehabilitation of forensic psychiatric patients in Zimbabwe with participants who were stakeholders in forensic psychiatric rehabilitation.

The study was focused on male forensic psychiatric patients rehabilitation and not on female forensic psychiatric patients because there were important variables in the two groups that were not homogenous. However, it is possible that including females in the study could have added perspective to the study. This also limits the generalisation of findings beyond the male forensic psychiatric participants. Services beyond the experience of participants translate to the notion that findings cannot be generalised beyond the parameters of the study. Future research and service evaluation and audit need to be considered. The study findings focused on the “psychiatric” aspect and did not emphasise the “forensic” aspect of the service delivery service. Future research may need to feature physical provisions and progression pathways with reference to “forensic” risk reduction as a parallel goal.

The study calls for the following: Transformation of the medico-judicial system, adjusting legislation and restructuring of the public service; changing of public attitudes to enable implementation of the medico-judicial framework; there is need for a step by step process in the implementation of the framework in which training needs of service staff, social workers, community leaders and key stakeholders will need to be addressed; the proposed changes presented by the model will require cultural, financial and infrastructural shifts.

There is need for policy makers to re-enfranchise or rebrand forensic psychiatric rehabilitation services in Zimbabwe. This could positively involve the marketing of forensic psychiatric rehabilitation to the stakeholders and to the public. This is projected to counter the stigma, disinterest and disillusionment that run through both professionals and public alike. This will foster a therapeutic jurisprudence that upholds the dignity and rights of forensic psychiatric patients.

This work is an original contribution to forensic psychiatry in Zimbabwe. Research in that area is prohibitive because of the complexity of processes that are followed. This research is therefore ground breaking.

The purpose of this article is to present a case study that documents how management science techniques (in particular data envelopment analysis) can be applied to performance improvement initiatives in an inpatient physical therapy setting.

The data used in this study consist of patients referred for inpatient physical therapy following total knee replacement surgery (at a medium‐sized medical facility in the Midwestern USA) during the fiscal year 2002. Data envelopment analysis (DEA) was applied to determine the efficiency of treatment, as well as to identify benchmarks for potential patient improvement. Statistical trends in the benchmarking and efficiency results were subsequently analyzed using non‐parametric and parametric methods.

Our analysis indicated that the rehabilitation process was largely effective in terms of providing consistent, quality care, as more than half of the patients in our study achieved the maximum amount of rehabilitation possible given available inputs. Among patients that did not achieve maximum results, most could obtain increases in the degree of flexion gain and reductions in the degree of knee extension.

The study is retrospective in nature, and is not based on clinical trial or experimental data. Additionally, DEA results are inherently sensitive to sampling: adding or subtracting individuals from the sample may change the baseline against which efficiency and rehabilitation potential are measured. As such, therapists using this approach must ensure that the sample is representative of the general population, and must not contain significant measurement error. Third, individuals who choose total knee arthroplasty will incur a transient disability. However, this population does not generally fit the World Health Organization International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health definition of disability if the surgical procedure is successful. Since the study focuses on the outcomes of physical therapy, range of motion measurements and circumferential measurements were chosen as opposed to the more global measures of functional independence such as mobility, transfers and stair climbing. Applying this technique to data on patients with different disabilities (or the same disability with other outcome variables, such as Functional Independence Measure scores) may give dissimilar results.

This case study provides an example of how one can apply quantitative management science tools in a manner that is both tractable and intuitive to the practising therapist, who may not have an extensive background in quantitative performance improvement or statistics.

DEA has not been applied to rehabilitation, especially in the case where managers have limited data available.

The links between substance use and offending are well evidenced in the literature, and increasingly, substance misuse recovery is being seen as a central component of the process of rehabilitation from offending, with substance use identified as a key criminogenic risk factor. In recent years, research has demonstrated the commonalities between recovery and rehabilitation, and the possible merits of providing interventions to substance-involved offenders that address both problematic sets of behaviours. The purpose of this paper is to provide an overview of the links between substance use and offending, and the burgeoning literature around the parallel processes of recovery and rehabilitation.

This is provided as a rationale for a new treatment approach for substance-involved offenders, Breaking Free Online (BFO), which has recently been provided as part of the “Gateways” throughcare pathfinder in a number of prisons in North-West England. The BFO programme contains specific behaviour change techniques that are generic enough to be applied to change a wide range of behaviours, and so is able to support substance-involved offenders to address their substance use and offending simultaneously.

This dual and multi-target intervention approach has the potential to address multiple, associated areas of need simultaneously, streamlining services and providing more holistic support for individuals, such as substance-involved offenders, who may have multiple and complex needs.

Given the links between substance use and offending, it may be beneficial to provide multi-focussed interventions that address both these behaviours simultaneously, in addition to other areas of multiple and complex needs. Specifically, digital technologies may provide an opportunity to widen access to such multi-focussed interventions, through computer-assisted therapy delivery modalities. Additionally, using digital technologies to deliver such interventions can provide opportunities for joined-up care by making interventions available across both prison and community settings, following offenders on their journey through the criminal justice system.

Recommendations are provided to other intervention developers who may wish to further contribute to widening access to such dual- and multi-focus programmes for substance-involved offenders, based on the experiences developing and evidencing the BFO programme.

This paper presents the findings from the first stages of qualitative research into the provision of transitional residential rehabilitation in Nottinghamshire. Its purpose is to identify several ‘critical success factors’ that appear to underpin effective practice.

To improve the position tracking efficiency of the upper-limb rehabilitation robot for stroke hemiplegia patients, the optimization Learning rate of the membership function based on the fuzzy impedance controller of the rehabilitation robot is propose.

First, the impaired limb’s damping and stiffness parameters for evaluating its physical recovery condition are online estimated by using weighted least squares method based on recursive algorithm. Second, the fuzzy impedance control with the rule has been designed with the optimal impedance parameters. Finally, the membership function learning rate online optimization strategy based on Takagi-Sugeno (TS) fuzzy impedance model was proposed to improve the position tracking speed of fuzzy impedance control.

This method provides a solution for improving the membership function learning rate of the fuzzy impedance controller of the upper limb rehabilitation robot. Compared with traditional TS fuzzy impedance controller in position control, the improved TS fuzzy impedance controller has reduced the overshoot stability time by 0.025 s, and the position error caused by simulating the thrust interference of the impaired limb has been reduced by 8.4%. This fact is verified by simulation and test.

The TS fuzzy impedance controller based on membership function online optimization learning strategy can effectively optimize control parameters and improve the position tracking speed of upper limb rehabilitation robots. This controller improves the auxiliary rehabilitation efficiency of the upper limb rehabilitation robot and ensures the stability of auxiliary rehabilitation training.

The place of rehabilitation programmes in the reformation and transformation of prison inmates has continued to be on the front burner of professionals such as educators, counsellors, social workers, psychologists and medical doctors. Analysis has taken something of a top-down approach, and consideration has been placed on how the organizational context of individual prisoners interact with those rehabilitation programmes has been neglected. Drawing on interview data, this study aims to add to our understanding how rehabilitation programme affects inmates’ skills and attitudes in Sri Lankan prisons.

This study used an inductive qualitative case study approach as it requires a deep understanding of the effect of rehabilitation programme on inmates’ skills and attitudes and how inmates view rehabilitation programmes.

The study identified seven views of inmates regarding rehabilitation programmes conducted and understood that rehabilitation programme facilitates inmates to acquire strong self-assurance of future career options and deal with potentially destructive feeling such as anger, frustration and loneliness. However, inmates who showed a strong propensity to suffer injustice and internalized blame have found no substantial impact on their skills and attitude through the programme.

It is arguable that operation of meaningful prison-based rehabilitation programme is influenced by comprehensive picture of the profile of the prison population, shortages in resources, the attitudes of prison staffs, inability to meet real world settings and network building with a wide range of private, public or voluntary providers.

This study represents the first prison-based study to understand the inmates view on the rehabilitation programmes in Sri Lanka.

People with Asperger syndrome are at increased risk of co‐morbid mental health problems. The core features underlying autism are likely to play an important role in offending behaviour amongst this population. Forensic rehabilitation includes a multidisciplinary approach and combination of therapeutic interventions. However there is limited evidence in the literature of what constitutes effective treatment within this setting, and how the process of rehabilitation is experienced by patients. The purpose of this paper is to describe a case of Asperger syndrome with co‐morbid psychosis and offending behaviour and the process of forensic rehabilitation.

The authors briefly review the literature related to Asperger syndrome, offending in this population and co‐morbidity. The authors then describe and reflect on a case of a young man with Asperger syndrome, sexual offending and the process of forensic rehabilitation, and offer an insight from the patient's perspective.

Co‐morbid mental illness, when detected early, can be successfully managed with limited additional disability. The process of forensic rehabilitation includes a multidisciplinary approach. Therapeutic interventions specifically aimed at addressing core features of autism, risk and offence‐related factors are effective in promoting recovery amongst those with autism and offending behaviour.

The paper highlights how core features of autism can lead to offending behaviour, the importance of early recognition and treatment of co‐morbidity, and the process of forensic rehabilitation and recovery. Also included are quotes from the patient's perspective on what it is like to have Asperger syndrome, and what has been the key learning from the rehabilitation process.