New book Rehabilitation: A post-critical approach by BRI Senior Scientist Dr. Barbara Gibson is now available online at CRC Press! For researchers and students, this book provides key insight on rehabilitation and examines the theoretical foundations of rehabilitation to explore new ways of thinking about disability, therapy goals, and patients’ wellbeing.

Book summary:

Rehabilitation is dedicated to helping people not only survive, but also thrive. Despite this complex goal, the organizing principles of rehabilitation still rely on biomedicine to construct disability as a problem of impaired bodies. Rehabilitation professionals are committed to helping to enhance people’s lives, but many struggle with how to do so in light of the bigger questions regarding their roles in, for example, working to maintain hope for recovery and/or promoting greater acceptance of diverse abilities. A key problem is the lack of theoretical tools for working through the function of rehabilitation in the lives of people with disabilities.

Dr. Gibson's research focuses on investigating and improving quality of life, community participation, and social inclusion of children, youth and young adults with disabilities through an examination of the health practices and policies that affect their daily lives.