The house as a space of rehabilitation: the CARE project

Abstract

Rehabilitation aims to recover all the possible abilities of a patient in order to reinsert him in the everyday life with the highest degree of autonomy. If that intent can be reached completely for many patients, for those who remain with a disability, a longer and tiring process is necessary, with the objective to maximize the remaining capacity “expendable” in the daily life environments, in order to allow the widest "participation" of a disabled person. The home is definitely the main daily living environment and the rehabilitation process should consider it pivotal, so that the disabled person can re appropriate it, with the highest level of autonomy.
The CARE project was conceived in this perspective. It derives from an interdisciplinary work where the medical knowledge, guided by the ICF, and the design knowledge, based on the principles of the Universal Design, were compared to give an effective response to the difficulties encountered by patients in transition from a protected hospital environment to a domestic environment. This step is crucial, so that the disabled person does not give up the painstakingly autonomy just recovered with significant economic and social costs, gendering re-hospitalization phenomena. The main objectives of CARE project are: provide to patient "real spaces" where they can exercise, through an occupational therapy the daily living activities, where the medical team can measure the development progress of the rehabilitation plan.