The limits to health care and rehabilitation

Customary in the field of health care and rehabilitation, a spirit of optimism pervades the work and attitudes held by most practitioners. Professionals have many reasons and excellent track records in working with individual clients to support optimistic beliefs. At the same time, substantial social, economic, and political limits determine what can be undertaken and accomplished. Some of these constraints are global in character; others are organizational. Definitions of these limits and awareness about their causes can lead to higher quality research and action on sociological, political, economic, and/or systems-level approaches. Eventually, this awareness and the responses to the limits may lead to greater resources and better outcomes. Such results would support rather than limit effective action at the individual level. New Zealand provides an interesting case study, given the prevailing economic hard times.