Difference Between Rehabilitation and Restorative Care

Introduction

Rehabilitation and restorative care are often misunderstood as the same, but they are not. Restorative care accelerates the improvement of the patient’s health conditions. On the other hand, rehabilitation helps to return to daily routine activities. They sound similar but serve different purposes. Rehabilitation improves physical and mental well-being by improving functioning, which gets maintained by restorative care.

What Is Rehabilitation in Healthcare?

Rehabilitation services in healthcare aim to regain cognitive, mental, and physical abilities impaired due to medical reasons, treatments, or trauma. Complete loss or impairment of such abilities affects the quality of life of an individual. Rehabilitation therapy includes cognitive therapy, occupational therapy, psychotherapy, language therapy, speech therapy, vocational rehabilitation, and physiotherapy.

• Physiotherapy: Physiotherapy or physical therapy restores the function and movement of an individual. It is performed by trained and certified professionals called physiotherapists. People with shoulder, back, or neck pain, sports injury, and cardiac and lung problems get benefitted from physiotherapy. The physiotherapists will recommend exercises to the patients and perform manual therapy using their hands to reduce pain and improve circulation and movement.

• Occupational Therapy: Occupational therapy focuses on improving the balance and performance of the individual. Occupational therapists help improve the physical and mental performance of the person by providing education and support. Thus occupational therapy helps the patient carry out their daily activities.

• Speech Therapy: A speech therapist helps improve communication by treating speech disorders. Speech therapy can be done in both adults and children. It will also improve the memory power and problem-solving ability of a person.

• Cognitive Rehabilitation: Cognitive rehabilitation therapy refers to a group of interventions that improve cognitive functioning. The main goal of such therapies is to improve the memory, reasoning, and thinking skills of an individual.

• Vocational Rehabilitation: It helps the person overcome obstructions that prevent them from returning to their occupation.

What Is Restorative Care?

Restorative care focuses on increasing the potential of an individual by maintaining a high level of mental and physical functioning. It maximizes the potential of a patient and improves their quality of life. Through rehabilitation, the individual improves their mobility and functioning, which will be maintained by restorative care. Following are some examples of restorative care:

• Ambulate With Assistance: Ambulation refers to walking. Muscle wastage, prolonged bedridden conditions, and other health problems can affect the ambulation of an individual. Nurses will assist the individuals in ambulating. The patients will be given grip footwear and will be encouraged and supported to walk without sliding or falling.

• Range of Motion (ROM) Exercises: Flexibility and mobility of the joints may be preserved by the range of motion exercises. Certain medical or physiological conditions, like aging, make the joints stiff and muscles weak. Range of motion exercises reduce stiffness and increase the range of motion of the joints. Range of motion exercises can be active or passive. Active range of motion exercises includes self-exercises like stretching that improve the flexibility and strength of the muscles. Passive range of motion exercises can be done with the assistance of a caregiver. It includes hip rotation, hip abduction, hip and knee flexion, ankle rotation, lumbar rotation, shoulder abduction, etc.

• Activities of Daily Living (ADL) Assistance: It refers to assisting the person in their daily living activities, like eating, bathing, using toilets, dental care, or dressing. Assistance will be provided directly by helping the patient use the toilet, shave, dress, or bathe. The nurse or healthcare provider will also provide equipment like plate guards (that prevent food from falling off the plate or container), bath chairs with rails (to help safe bathing), rubber mats in the washroom (to prevent falling), etc. The provider should remember the abilities of the person before making them do or assisting with the daily activities.

• Prosthesis: A prosthesis is a device that helps restore the functions of a missed body part. A prosthetic device may be designed manually or with the help of software based on the requirements and abilities of an individual. Prosthetic devices can be craniofacial prostheses, somato prostheses, penile prostheses, and more.

• Orthotics: Orthotics devices help restore the function of the foot or ankle. It includes foot pads or heel inserts. Pain and functional changes related to conditions like tendinitis, rheumatoid arthritis, or ankle sprains can be managed by orthotics. They can be off-the-shelf devices or custom-made devices. The traditional method of building an orthotic device was by taking impressions and creating plaster models. Recent technology uses software to design devices based on the physiology and ability of the individual.

• Splint: Splint is a device that supports fractured or injured bone. A splint can be rigid or flexible and can stabilize the bone parts to promote healing and functioning.

What Are the Difference Between Restorative Care and Rehabilitation Services?

Following are the differences between restorative care and rehabilitation services:

• Rehabilitation services help improve the function of an injured or diseased body part. Restoration, on the other hand, maintains the functioning of the body part.

• Through rehabilitation, the person develops structure and functioning, which helps improve their self-esteem. Restoration gradually improves the quality of life of a person.

• Rehabilitation services include various types of therapies. Restorative care uses manual or device-based assistance.

• Rehabilitation services will be provided by therapists. On the other hand, nurses assist with restorative care.

• Rehabilitation therapies will be conducted by the specific therapist on individual patients. Restorative care can be given to an individual or a group of individuals. Performing group active ROM exercises are an example of restorative care done as a group.

Conclusion

Rehabilitation services and restorative care are often used interchangeably and are confused as the same service. Rehabilitation focuses on improving the functioning, and restorations maintain the restored function. Even though rehabilitation and restoration are different services, they work hand in hand to improve the well-being of an individual. Therapists work to rehabilitate the physical and mental health of an individual. At the same time, nurses provide restorative care manually or with the help of devices to restore and maintain the physical functioning of the individual.