Rehabilitation for the elderly

Abstract

The interim report titled "Courses of action we should be taking in rehabilitation for the elderly" from The Institute of Rehabilitation for the Elderly, a private consultatiive body of the Ministry of Health and Welfare's Health and Welfare Bureau for the Elderly, has been published. The report states the need for an appropriate approach responding to the overall condition of the elderly in their rehabilitation, and proposes three rehabilitation models: the stroke model, the disuse atrophy model, and the senile dementia model. Based on the above proposals, a general discussion is given of the characteristics of geriatric illnesses, physiological changes with aging, and which illnesses are subjects of rehabilitation for the elderly. From each of the above viewpoints an account is given of rehabilitation in the acute stage of stroke relating to the stroke model, the pathologies of disuse atrophy relating to the disuse atrophy model, and the latest developments in diagnosis and treatment of senile dementia relating to the senile dementia model.