Rehabilitation and health promotion
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), about 15% of the world's population lives with a disability and the number of people with periodic or chronic impairment is increasing. More knowledge about health promotion and rehabilitation action along the life-course is needed.
Rehabilitation is defined as “a set of interventions designed to optimize functioning and reduce disability in individuals with health conditions in interaction with their environment” (WHO)
Rehabilitation is a key strategy for achieving Sustainable Development Goal 3 – “Ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all at all ages”.
Our research group focuses on the 10 priority areas of WHO’s “Rehabilitation 2030 Call for Action” at sub-national, national and global levels
- Creating strong leadershipand political support for rehabilitation.
- Strengthening its planning & implementation, including within emergencypreparedness and response.
- Improving integration of rehabilitation into the health sector and across sectors.
- Incorporating rehabilitation in Universal Health Coverage.
- Building comprehensive and equitable rehabilitation service models that include assistive products and reach underserved areas.
- Developing a strong multidisciplinary, context-sensitive rehabilitation workforce, and promoting its concepts across all health workforce education.
- Expanding rehabilitation financing.
- Enhance health information systemsincluding rehabilitation data and information on functioning (ICF).
- Building research capacity.
- Strengthening partnerships, particularly between low-, middle- and high-income countries.
Health promotion research involves putting health on the agenda of policy makers, building healthy public policy, creating supportive environments, and strengthening community action, empowerment and control. Research focuses on the development of personal and social skills, and the reorientation of health services, with shared responsibility among individuals, groups, professionals, institutions, and governments.
We represent different professions/ disciplines including occupational therapy, physiotherapy, nursing, epidemiology, pedagogy, sociology, anthropology, political sciences, health economy etc. and do research to enable people’s best possible functioning, independence, and participation in the contexts where they live. We address the development, implementation, and effects of interventions as well as the cultural and structural conditions for rehabilitation and health-promotion.
The research group has the following research areas:
- Health promotion and rehabilitation: local and global perspectives
- Reablement
- Ageing and health: Local and global perspectives
- Health promotion and rehabilitation along the life-course
- Health economy, health priorities in ageing and rehabilitation
- Capacity building and human resources for rehabilitation in Eastern Africa
- Health equity and migrant/ refugee health
- Data-Driven Rehabilitation and Artificial Intelligence
- Impact of conflict and disasters on rehabilitation health systems and health professionals
- Interprofessional collaborative learning
Ongoing research projects
- Global Perspectives on Healthy Ageing (GPHA)
- Reablement in Dementia Care across Europe
- Reablement – scoping review
- Better life with COPD - A health-promoting self-care program
- Living conditions, coping and skills development in young adults with psychosis disorders - focusing on physical activity as a coping resource
- Reflections on Developing a Global Master's Program in Healthy Ageing and Rehabilitation
- Disability, Rehabilitation and Global Health
- Building Interprofessional Rehabilitation Capacity in Higher Education in Tanzania and Kenya
- Community-based rehabilitation and inclusive education in low-income settings
- Human resources for rehabilitation in sub-Saharan Africa
- Peer support amongst persons with spinal cord injury in Norway and Malawi
- Sexual and reproductive health services amongst women with disabilities in Nigeria
- Early intervention in long-term care – new model for tailored initial efforts and allocation of services
- Social prescribing: Coping with everyday-life in persons experiencing loneliness and social isolation
- Cognitive impairment in ALS; experiences and needs during diagnostics and follow-up among patients and their family caregivers
- Translation and cultural adaptation of Occupational Balance Questionnaire 11 (OBQ11) and Manual with SpiderWeb
- Various Occupational therapy relevant research topics
- Priority setting of rehabilitation interventions
- Estimating the need for rehabilitation care in Norway
- Trend Analysis of Health Expenditure on Long-Term Care across Europe
- Climate and Health: Interprofessional Learning, Innovation and Collaboration (IP LINC)
- Navigating Dual Challenges: Healthy Ageing and Migration in Norway
- Foster healthy and active aging through research, digital innovation, training, and integrated policy strategies: ERASMUS project submission/ application
- Scoping review: Health Economics in Physiotherapy: Making the Case
- Scoping Review: Concussion among girls and women in ice hockey
- Readiness for AI use among health professionals in Norway and South Africa
- SARHA- Coordinated Data-Driven Rehabilitation Following Stroke
- Scoping Review: Patient Transitions Between Specialist Health Services and Primary Care Following Rehabilitation
- Norplus project: Students as change agents in grand societal challenges
- Translation and cultural adaptation of the Canadian Model of Occupational Participation (CanMOP)
- IP-Future, a circular educational framework to help solve healthcare challenges: interprofessional education and collaboration for the future.
- Community-based cardio-pulmonary rehabilitation in low- and middle-income countries: case studies in Tanzania and Pakistan
Publications and networks
Publications
“All of a sudden, everything changed”: a comparative qualitative study about returning home after a spinal cord injury in Norway and Malawi Nielsen, Mæland, Tarimo & Van den Bergh (2026)
Interprofessional Approach to Refugee Health: A Practical Guide for Interdisciplinary Health and Social Care Teams | Open Book Publishers (Jalovcic, 2025)
Embracing Reablement as an Essential Support Approach for Dementia Care in the 21st Century: A Position Paper Metzelthin, Thuesen, Tuntland, Zingmark, Jeon & Kristensen (2024)
Use of primary healthcare services before and after specialized rehabilitation and its relation to changes in health and functioning: a longitudinal cohort study Berget, Moen, Hustoft, Assmus, Strand & Skouen (2024)
Does assistive technology contribute to safety among home-dwelling older adults? Bikova, Ambugo, Tjerbo, Jalovcic & Førland (2024)
Conceptualizing the Facilitators and Barriers of Successful Multidisciplinary Teamwork Within the Reablement Process: A Scoping Review. Gibson, Landry, Tuntland (2024)
Networks- and consortia with events and conferences
AfroRehab2030 Consortium with Kilimanjaro Christian Medical Centre University (KCMCU) & Muhimbili University of Allied Sciences (MUHAS), Tanzania and Moi University (MU) & Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology (JKUAT) in Kenya and Arcada University AS, Finland.
Regionalt kompetansesenter for habilitering og rehabilitering - Helse Bergen HF (yearly conferences, in Norwegian)
Research group leader
Members