Review of the World Health Organization's report on disability prevention and rehabilitation.

The key approaches recommended by the WHO expert committee in this standard-setting document are these: 1. the prevention of disability through environmental sanitation, adequate nutrition, and supportive health care; and 2. the provision of rehabilitation services within the available and accessible primary healthcare model. Programs based on these approaches have substantially improved the quality of life for many disabled people in the Third World. Familiarity with this key international position paper is an essential starting point for the nurse interested in contributing to the field of rehabilitation in underserved areas of the world, including areas of the United States.