Integrating a Cultural Perspective into Rehabilitation Education

Abstract

Increased U.S. involvement in rehabilitation activities in other countries is opening more opportunities for rehabilitationists to work in cross-cultural situations. On the home front, there is need for practitioners who are prepared to work with members of cultural minorities and recent immigrant groups. Equally compelling is the need for practitioners whose education has prepared them to work effectively with people who are different from themselves in gender, age, socioeconomic circumstance, religion, or other ways. In these interactions, too, there will be differences in cultural knowledge and behavior and, accordingly, differences in responses to disablement. In short, a cultural perspective on human behavior from which to develop an understanding of variation and a culturally informed mode of practice has potential relevance for all rehabilitation practice situations.