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The ICF is a multipurpose classification designed to serve various disciplines and sectors across different countries and cultures. The stated aims of the ICF (WHO 2001:5) are to:
provide a scientific basis for understanding and studying health and health-related states, outcomes and determinants;
establish a common language for describing health and health-related states in order to improve communication between different users, such as health care workers, researchers, policy-makers and the public, including people with disabilities;
permit comparison of data across countries, health care disciplines, services and time; and
provide a systematic coding scheme for health information systems.
Thus there is a broad range of intended and potential uses to which the ICF will be put. Importantly, the ICF is not just used by people who describe themselves as working in the disability or health sector. People may use it across other broad sectors including insurance, social security, employment, education, economics, social policy, legislation and environmental modification. Furthermore, the ICF is accepted as one of the United Nations social classifications, and is referred to in and incorporates The Standard Rules on the Equalization of Opportunities for People with Disabilities (WHO 2001:5).
The ICF as a 'framework' as well as a classification
Australia has broad policies on disability, encompassing approaches to both generic and specialist services relevant to people with disabilities. A wide range of data is therefore needed to describe the status of people with disabilities in the population and their access to services. It is important that information collected embraces or considers all components of disability and relates to other information collected, both in service settings and at the population level. A broad, common understanding of disability, including common or relatable disability definitions, is crucial to understanding and improving outcomes for people with disabilities.
This User Guide includes a number of practical illustrations of the ways the ICF has been applied as a 'framework' for developing such common understanding:
Section 3 discusses the value of a common conceptualisation of disability and outlines applications that illustrate this point.
Section 7 provides background about the reasons for adopting the ICF as a framework for national disability data before outlining the main tools used to promote national data consistency - national information agreements and the Australian data dictionaries.
Section 10 provides a practical example of how the ICF was applied as a framework and classification in redeveloping the major national administrative data collection in the disability services sector, the Commonwealth/State Disability Agreement Minimum Data Set (CSDA MDS).
Relationship to assessment and measurement
The ICF is not an assessment or measurement tool, but rather a framework and set of classifications on which assessment and measurement tools may be based and to which they can be mapped. This distinction can be misunderstood, with people sometimes referring to the ICF itself as an assessment tool or a data set. The broad framework of the ICF puts assessment in context and shows how narrow the focus of assessment often is. Methods of assessing particular aspects of disability should be able to be located within the ICF framework, thereby clarifying which aspects they do, and do not, attempt to measure. For further information see Section 3, which includes a detailed discussion of the differences between definition and classification, labelling and assessment, Section 8 on disability identifiers and measurement, and Section 10 on examples of current uses.
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