Summary
The International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health (ICF) provides a framework for the conceptualisation, classification and measurement of disability. It recognises disability as a multidimensional and universal experience. Within the ICF framework, a wide range of specific purpose definitions and applications can be located, developed and related to each other. Perspectives on disability may vary with environment, personal experience and professional training. The ICF provides an information framework—of concepts, terminology and classifications—that will help to establish a broadly shared understanding of disability at various life stages, in various settings and among people with varying experience and training. Widespread use of the ICF will lead to more integrated approaches to gathering and sharing information and to policy making. The Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW) is now encouraging the use of the ICF in a broad range of fields in Australia.
Preliminary material: List of tables, appendix tables, figures and boxes; Acknowledgments; Abbreviations
1. Purpose and outline
- Introduction
- Purposes of the User Guide
- For whom is the User Guide written?
- What are the uses of the ICF?
- What is in this User Guide?
2. Overview of the ICF
- Components of the ICF
- Classifications and codes
- The ICF and the WHO family of international classifications
- History and development of the ICF
- Overview of potential and intended uses
3. Benefits and uses of the ICF for Australia
- Concerns about definition and classification
- Benefits of definition and classification
- Past and emerging uses
- The future
4. Getting started: general advice on use
5. Activities and Participation: application in Australia
- Activities and Participation in the ICF
- Approaches to delineating Activities and Participation
- Splitting the domains to delineate Activities and Participation- option (a)
- Using the qualifiers as the basis for delineating Activities and Participation - options (b) and (d)
- Qualifiers for Activities and Participation - and A-P delineation
- The 'information matrix'
- Moving forward on measurement and the qualifiers
- Advice to users- and how to contribute to national development by recording use in a 'test template'
6. Environmental factors
- Environmental factors and the ICF
- Coding conventions and qualifiers
- Current applications
7. The ICF and Australian data dictionaries
- The ICF as a framework for national disability data
- Moving towards national consistency
- The ICF and national disability data elements
- Using the national disability data elements
8. Disability identifiers
9. Personal factors
10. ICF applications - examples
- Applying the ICF to a national disability services data collection
- The use of the ICF framework in an allied health outcome measure: Australian Therapy Outcome Measures (AusTOMs)
- The ICF and classification for disability athletics
- The ICF and accident compensation in Australia
- The ICF and speech pathology
- The ICF and Rett Syndrome
- Classification of support and need
- The Handicap Assessment and Resource Tool (HART) and the ICF
- The ICF and oral health
End matter: Links; References