Disability and rehabilitation in Mexico

Recent disability-related data are available from the 13th National Census of Population and Housing, which was performed in 2010. Disability assessment followed the recommendations of the Washington Group on Disability Statistics and identified 5,739,270 (5.1%) persons with disability, 51.1% of whom were women. Almost 60% of all persons 85 yrs or older reported disabilities. Policies and legislation endorse the rights of persons with disabilities. However, little is known about the real-life situation of persons with disabilities in Mexico as well as the met and unmet needs for rehabilitation. Rehabilitation services in Mexico are mainly organized by the Mexican Institute of Social Security. Because of the increasing need for rehabilitation, an innovative model of small first-level rehabilitation services has been designed and successfully implemented. This model has increased the capacity of rehabilitation services by 60% since 2003.