ICFProViP

ICF pro logo

Start and end date: 01/08/2009 to 30/09/2010
Funding frame: EU: Leonardo da Vinci Partnership
Duration: 14 months
Project coordinator: Institute for the Blind and Partially Sighted
Contact person: Mrs. Dorthe Marie Degn
Contact person email: dmd@ibos.dk
Contact person phone: +45 3945 23 58

A project to qualify professionals in training and vocational rehabilitation centres in the systematic of ICF.

ICF is the abbreviation for “International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health” which was released by the World Health Organisation (WHO) in 2001.

The ICF complements the WHO’s International Classification of Diseases (ICD), which categorises Diseases, which contains information on diagnosis and health condition, but not on functional status.

The ICF is a very complexe and holistic system where functioning and disability are viewed as a complex interaction between the health condition of the individual and the contextual factors of the environment as well as personal factors.

ICF is developed with focus on the individual’s resources and possibilities. As a mindset this will support the individual’s success at rehabilitation as well as be helpful for the cooperation’s between the individual, the professionals and future employers.

Background of this project

Visually impaired persons (VIP) in rehabilitation often experience long waiting periods and difficulties in communication between different professionals and institutions when assessing their possibilities and individual needs. This adds to the difficulties most VIPs experience about gaining access to education and work. Most often focus is on what the person cannot do in stead of what is possible.

Furthermore the diseases to the visual apparatus and visual impairment in general are multifaceted and their impact to the personal capabilities highly individual. An appropriate and valid scoring or ratings of those capabilities, according to the requirements of the ICF are therefore complicated and tools are rare to find, which is why cooperation across professions, institutions and borders are needed in order to make progress.

Efficient communication between different professions and institutions becomes even more important as many VIPs face other physical, social and psychological difficulties beside their visual impairment. ICF as a holistic classification system aspires to cover all influences a disease might have to the physiological and psycho-social condition of a person.

Adequate and appropriate strategies and methods to carry out correlating assessments are indispensable in order to assist the individual VIP to realise their full potentials for society and be able to support themselves.

Aims and objectives of this project

  • Gaining knowledge about how to implement ICF as a tool in (re)habilitation of VIP at each partner institute
  • Gaining knowledge about whether or not the partnership institutes should be part of the WHO development of ICF as a tool for visually impaired in the future
  • Exchanging information about target group related ICF-initiatives and -research in the partner-countries
  • Adaptation of the existing ICF course from the Dutch partner Royal VISIO within 6 planned meetings.

EU Logo – Project Co-funded by the Erasmus+ Programme of the European Union