Biomedical Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
Together with the neuroscientist Gazzaniga, we ask why is the model called the bio-
psycho
-
social model, one of the classifications of the International Classification of Functioning,
Disability, and Health (ICF; WHO 2001), when it contains nothing psychological? We do not
believe that psychology has ended, but surely (clinical) psychologists risk not finding its loca-
tion if the World Health Organization's disability model does not build a “floor” for psychology.
Maybe it would not be so bad if the problem were just circumscribed to the (clinical) psycholo-
gists' occupation in the world. It is very bad if psychology perhaps has the tools to prevent
the abandonment of assistive technology (AT) (Philips and Zhao 1993; Zimmer and Chappell
1999; Riemer-Reiss and Wacker 2000; Lenker and Paquet 2004; Scherer et al. 2005; Verza et al.
2006; Waldron and Layton 2008; Söderström and Ytterhus 2010), to guarantee an AT assessment
(ATA) “user-driven
process
through which the selection of one or more technological aids for an
assistive solution
is
facilitated by the comprehensive utilization of clinical measures, functional
analysis, and psycho-socio-environmental evaluations
that address, in a specific context of use,
the personal
well-being
of the user through the best
matching
of user/client and assistive solu-
tion.” (see Conclusions, Section I this volume.)
Searching “psychologist role” and “disab*” or “rehabil*” in the “abstract” field of the
main databases of the scientific indexes, such as Cambridge Scientific Abstracts (CSA),
PubMed, Medline, PsyArticle, PsyInfo, Eric, and Ebsco, from 1900 to date, the findings
are astonishing: 56 products between 1973 and 2010. By eliminating studies referring to
school psychologists or related only marginally to the (clinical) psychologist's role in reha-
bilitation and AT assignation, the number of products is reduced to 36, comprising eight
chapters in topics and monographs and 28 journal articles. Twenty-three of them were
published in the 26 years between 1973 and 1999, and the remaining 13 were published in
the last 11 years. We found just two conference papers (Mitani et al. 2007; Nihei et al. 2007)
in the Association for the Advancement of Assistive Technology in Europe (AAATE) con-
ference proceedings by searching “psycholog*” in the title or in the abstract.
The international scientific literature has never given a clear definition of the role and
competencies of the psychologist in the rehabilitation field. In the ATA process, the psy-
chologist's role is given but it usually seems to be narrowed down to the testing and diag-
nostic phases.
The professional skills of psychologists and their usefulness in the following are
all issues of minor relevance in the AT scientific literature (Barry and O'Leary 1989;
Scherer 2000):
• Advocating the user's request in the user-driven process
through which the selec-
tion of one or more technological aids for an assistive solution is reached;
• Acting as mediator between users seeking solutions and the multidisciplinary
team of a center for technical aid;
• Team facilitating among members of the multidisciplinary team; and
• Reframing the relationship between the client and his or her family within the
framework of the new challenges and limitations and restrictions they face.
Nevertheless, the recent advance of the bio-psycho-social model in the social and scien-
tific communities (Plante 2005); the integration of objective and subjective measures in the
diagnostic process (Ueda and Okawa 2003; Uppal 2006; Federici and Meloni 2010; Kayes
and McPherson 2010); the recognized relevance of contextual factors and, particularly, the
personal ones affecting the long-term success of AT matching (Nair 2003); and the increas-
ing attention to the “imbalance of power” (Brown and Gordon 2004) in the relationship
