A healthcare professional assists a person in a wheelchair with lifting small dumbbells during an exercise session in a therapy room.

Enabling Independence and Rehabilitation

Surgery, injuries and long-term health conditions can have a big impact on how you go about your day-to-day life. They can make it harder to move around, take part in school or work activities, do daily tasks like getting dressed or even speak and think. On top of that, they can also knock your confidence and reduce your independence.

Rehabilitation helps children, young people and adults manage the ways their condition impacts their everyday lives, giving them tools and strategies to reduce the barriers they face in moving, thinking or getting things done.

With the right support and guidance, many people who need rehabilitation can manage their condition well, and live safely, independently and with dignity.

More about enabling independence and rehabilitation

Why you might need rehabilitation

There can be many reasons why you or your child need rehabilitation, including injuries like fractures, sprains or a brain injury, a stroke, or another neurological condition that affects your movement, speech and thinking skills, recovery after an operation like a joint replacement or abdominal surgery, a respiratory condition like chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), reduced mobility after an illness or a hospital stay, chronic pain, fatigue or muscle weakness, changes to your mobility or balance as you get older, a learning disability that affects your independence and for children and young people, delays in early development or long-term conditions.

Getting advice early on can help prevent your symptoms from getting worse over time, and speed up your journey back towards safety and independence.

Because there are many different reasons why you might need rehabilitation, there are also several kinds of treatment and strategies that might make up your rehabilitation plan, and you might need to see a few different services.

Here are some of the ways you can be supported through your rehabilitation, exercise plans to help improve strength, balance and mobility, support with daily tasks like washing, eating and getting dressed, strategies to help with memory, problem-solving and attention, help for children with posture, sensory processing and play skills, help accessing and using mobility aids and equipment, strategies for managing fatigue and wellbeing support.