Disabilities: What Everyone Should Know

According to Discapacidad: lo que todos debemos saber ("Disabilities: What Everyone Should Know," available in Spanish only), better prevention and care can reduce disabilities as well as their associated social costs.

"Lack of information and the absence of a global approach to pathologies and their consequences are often the cause of disabilities," says the book's prologue. "A high percentage [of people with disabilities] would not have been disabled or handicapped if they had been cared for at the start of their disease or trauma by a physician with basic knowledge of the functions required for physical, social, educational, and occupational independence."

The scientific-technical volume, with 11 contributors, is intended primarily for physicians and support staff. It provides information on all phases of care, from prevention and recovery to rehabilitation and reintegration into the community.

The book notes that effective prevention must focus not only on primary causes of disability such as illness or trauma, but also on secondary causes such as immobilization following an injury and failure to get adequate care for a chronic illness. Health teams must be aware of the importance of maintaining patients' full functions. For example, patients who have been prescribed bed rest must resume activities as early as possible, and providers must know when to refer patients to specialists in rehabilitation. Equally important is the identification of risk factors such as genetic disorders, drug and alcohol abuse, domestic violence, and chronic diseases.

"By emphasizing risk factors, prevention measures, an integrated approach, active participation of the person, his family, and the community, and the full use of available resources, we believe that the general practitioner and the health team will be better positioned to focus on their patients' functions and to know when to consult about a given pathology with the appropriate specialist," says the book.