Abstract
The International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health (ICF) (WHO, 2005) represents an international tool to address, plan, and evaluate complex psychosocial interventions. ICF represents a common metalanguage which aims to overcome conceptual profession-specific terminology and increase common understanding and coordination of complex health intervention processes. Even though strongly recommended by the WHO, UNICEF, World Bank, etc., its use is still limited due to the necessary transformations of specific constructs (e.g. in psychology) into the new meta-categories. The paper addresses attempts to transform traditional constructs in psychology and special education into the metalanguage of ICF and provides selected empirical evidence by means of performed usability studies in Austria and Germany of these transformation processes.
Highlights
The International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health (ICF) (WHO, 2005) represents an international tool to address, plan, and evaluate complex psychosocial interventions
It classifies health components like the environment ("e), body structures (“s”), body functions (“b”), activity and participation (“d”), or personal factors. This new system, in line with the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) (UN, 2007) facilitates piecing together a detailed and interactive “jigsaw” of a person in his/her relevant environments, and creates a holistic picture by use of health components and 1400 classification items. It refers to any person with a health problem and strives for description, assessments, and interpretations appropriate to a concrete situation considering the uniqueness of a person with a health problem related to its contexts (Todorova et al, 2020)
In contrast to the ICD (World Health Organization, 1990), the ICF focuses on a dynamic interaction between a health problem of a person and his/her environment (Schuntermann, 2009)
Summary
It classifies health components like the environment ("e), body structures (“s”), body functions (“b”), activity and participation (“d”), or personal factors This new system, in line with the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) (UN, 2007) facilitates piecing together a detailed and interactive “jigsaw” of a person in his/her relevant environments, and creates a holistic picture by use of health components and 1400 classification items. It refers to any person with a health problem and strives for description, assessments, and interpretations appropriate to a concrete situation considering the uniqueness of a person with a health problem related to its contexts (Todorova et al, 2020). The ICF provides comparable data on disability or related to the interconnections between diagnosis and participation restrictions (Maierhofer et al, 2011 in Spain about the prevalence of disability; Tantilipikorn et al, 2012 and Schiariti, 2014 for children with cerebral palsy; Castro & Pinto, 2012 for children with autism spectrum disorder; Dale et al, 2012, e.g. about functional and participation correlations in women with heart attacks)
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