Rehabilitation – strengthening advocacy for change. It’s time to act

It is well known that access to rehabilitation services at the primary health care (PHC) level has historically been limited with most rehabilitation interventions based at tertiary and secondary levels of care. Policy developments such as the National Rehabilitation Policy1 highlight the need for the expansion of rehabilitation services across all levels of care, while improving access for all persons with disability requiring rehabilitation services. More recent strategic policy directives such as Primary Health Care Re-engineering2, the Framework and Strategy for Disability and Rehabilitation Services in South Africa3 and the White Paper on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities4 position rehabilitation services as an integral part in the delivery of integrated and comprehensive health care that is grounded within the core tenets of community based rehabilitation (CBR) and social justice