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Rehabilitation
Reviewed by Medicinsk Expert•Last updated: 2026-10-22•Surgery Rehabilitation

Rehabilitation

Rehabilitation is a form of care designed to help individuals regain, maintain, or improve the physical, mental, and cognitive abilities necessary for daily life.

What is rehabilitation?

Rehabilitation is care that can help you get back, keep, or improve abilities that you need for daily life. These abilities may be physical, mental, and/or cognitive (thinking and learning). You may have lost them because of a disease or injury, or as a side effect from a medical treatment. Rehabilitation can improve your daily life and functioning.

Who needs rehabilitation?

Rehabilitation is for people who have lost abilities that they need for daily life. Some of the most common causes include:

  • Injuries and trauma, including burns, fractures (broken bones), traumatic brain injury, and spinal cord injuries
  • Stroke
  • Severe infections
  • Major surgery
  • Side effects from medical treatments, such as from cancer treatments
  • Certain birth defects and genetic disorders
  • Developmental disabilities
  • Chronic pain, including back and neck pain

What are the goals of rehabilitation?

The overall goal of rehabilitation is to help you get your abilities back and regain independence. But the specific goals are different for each person. They depend on what caused the problem, whether the cause is ongoing or temporary, which abilities you lost, and how severe the problem is. For example:

  • A person who has had a stroke may need rehabilitation to be able to dress or bathe without help
  • An active person who has had a heart attack may go through cardiac rehabilitation to try to return to exercising
  • Someone with a lung disease may get pulmonary rehabilitation to be able to breathe better and improve their quality of life

What happens in a rehabilitation program?

When you get rehabilitation, you often have a team of different health care providers helping you. They will work with you to figure out your needs, goals, and treatment plan. The types of treatments that may be in a treatment plan include:

  • Assistive devices, which are tools, equipment, and products that help people with disabilities move and function
  • Cognitive rehabilitation therapy to help you relearn or improve skills such as thinking, learning, memory, planning, and decision making
  • Mental health counseling
  • Music or art therapy to help you express your feelings, improve your thinking, and develop social connections
  • Nutritional counseling
  • Occupational therapy to help you with your daily activities
  • Physical therapy to help your strength, mobility, and fitness
  • Recreational therapy to improve your emotional well-being through arts and crafts, games, relaxation training, and animal-assisted therapy
  • Speech-language therapy to help with speaking, understanding, reading, writing and swallowing
  • Treatment for pain
  • Vocational rehabilitation to help you build skills for going to school or working at a job

Depending on your needs, you may have rehabilitation in the providers' offices, a hospital, or an inpatient rehabilitation center. In some cases, a provider may come to your home. If you get care in your home, you will need to have family members or friends who can come and help with your rehabilitation.

Frequently Asked Questions

Many patients can return to work part‑time or with modified duties during rehab, especially if the injury is not severe. Your therapist and occupational therapist can help design a home‑work program that fits your schedule and assess whether your workplace can accommodate any physical or cognitive limitations.
Stroke rehab usually combines range‑of‑motion and strengthening exercises for affected limbs, balance and gait training, functional task practice (e.g., dressing, bathing), and cognitive drills such as memory games or problem‑solving activities. Therapists also use adaptive equipment and assistive devices to promote independence.
Transition typically occurs when you can walk a short distance with minimal assistance, manage basic self‑care tasks, and have a clear home exercise plan. Your rehab team will evaluate your progress, safety at home, and support system before recommending outpatient care.===
Most patients notice small functional gains within the first 2–4 weeks of therapy, such as improved mobility or the ability to perform simple self‑care tasks. Significant, sustained improvements often take 3–6 months, depending on the injury or illness, the severity of deficits, and how consistently you attend sessions.
Source: MedlinePlus, National Library of Medicine

MedlinePlus brings together authoritative health information from the National Library of Medicine (NLM), the National Institutes of Health (NIH), and other government agencies and health-related organizations.

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