[Progress, detours, errors--social legislative aspects of the development of rehabilitation]

Any person threatened by the onset of disability has a right to the assistance needed to integrate in work, career, and society (section 10, Book 1 of the Social Code). A highly sophisticated system of legal provisions and pursuant administrative competencies, eligibility requirements and benefit provision modalities seeks to fulfill this entitlement. The system of available services is subject to on-going development, with adjustments necessary in response both to medical advances and labour market or technological developments. The adjustment process is limited by the economic resources available, which may restrict the scope of what is considered feasible regardless of what might be possible or desirable. To avoid becoming entangled in the "jungle" of its own system of competencies and eligibilities, a rehabilitee-centred rehabilitation approach must seek to make even better use of the manifold opportunities of rehabilitation legislation in light of the individual case at hand and based on professional cooperation. Any further development of rehabilitation legislation will moreover have to pay attention to those persons for whom occupational integration is no longer, or not yet, possible, in order to face up to future social challenges.