[Rehabilitation--a challenge for lawmakers and social administration]

In light of contemporary social legislation, jurisdiction, scientific publications as well as the great numbers of institutions and facilities, the field of rehabilitation has undergone profound, positive changes from the beginnings of social legislation till today. Lawmaker and social administration are equally concerned with the tasks at hand today and in the future. The legislator is responsible for closing legislational gaps and for creating definitional clarity. Inter alia because of the high expectations relative to quality and quantity of social services and benefits, it is not possible in the Federal Republic of Germany to achieve greater simplicity and at the same time greater social equity of rehabilitation law. One of the main problems is to determine what exactly is comprised by "social rehabilitation" as well as its relationships with other areas of rehabilitation, aside from integrating social rehabilitation in its entirety into the catalogue of tasks incumbent on the social insurance sector. The self-government bodies are called on to make even greater use of the rooms for action accorded under the applicable provisions. This includes the competence for undertaking research, which, in particular in the health insurance sector, emanates from art. 217 SGB 5 (Social Code, Book 5). The social protection administrations are called on to define the bases for rehabilitation programme standards relative to the various disability types, in view of safeguarding rehabilitation effectiveness and efficiency.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)