After seven years of planning, the World Rehabilitation Alliance (WRA) was launched in Geneva on Tuesday with a founding membership of 82 organisations.

Welcoming the launch, actress Emilia Clarke, who played Daenerys Targaryen (Khaleesi) in Game of Thrones, said that it was an “absolute joy” that her organisation, SameYou, is a founding member of the alliance. 

“I’ve suffered two brain haemorrhages, so I know firsthand just how vital rehabilitation was to my recovery,” said Clarke in a video message. “It’s something that matters to millions and millions of people all over the world, and yet still so many people don’t get access to what they need.”

Grammy Award-winning singer Ricky Kej performed a song specially composed for the alliance, which was launched at the end of a two-day global summit convened by the World Health Organization (WHO) to assist countries to integrate rehabilitation care into their health systems.

Earlier, Ukraine’s Deputy Health Minister, Mariia Karchevych, told the summit that her country had suddenly found itself having to provide rehabilitation for “thousands of people” injured by rockets fired on them by Russia.

“In the midst of the war, we had to create a rehabilitation strategy and fully integrate it into our healthcare network,” said Karchevych.

“Our lives changed in the war, but our principle remains the same. Everyone matters,” she added, expressing gratitude to the international community for its support, which she described as a “manifestation of love”.

WHO Director-General Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus described rehabilitation as “a universal right”. 

“This new alliance is a powerful demonstration of the collaborative spirit of the rehabilitation community. By uniting our voices across sectors, we can raise the profile of rehabilitation and support its integration in the continuity of care across all countries,” Tedros told the launch in a recorded message.

“The need for rehabilitation is far, far greater than most people assume,” Dr Jérôme Salomon, Assistant Director-General and head of Universal Health Coverage at WHO, told the summit.

“More than 2.4 billion people, almost a third of the global population, have health conditions that could benefit from rehabilitation.

The summit came shortly after a watershed first-ever resolution on boosting access to rehabilitation care was passed by the World Health Assembly with unanimous support from the 193 member states in May.

The resolution notes that global rehabilitation needs are “largely unmet”. In many countries, less than half of people receive the care they require. 

Integrating rehabilitation into health systems

The summit launched a Package of Interventions for Rehabilitation aimed at assisting countries to integrate rehabilitation into their national health services, including training health workers to address the need.

“The purpose of this package of interventions is to support the planning, the budgeting and the integration that we’ve talked about,” said Dr Binta Sako, WHO’s lead on rehabilitation in the Africa region.

“It provides a lot of information on the type of evidence-based interventions that are needed. What is required to make the services available in terms of material and also human resources.”

The package focuses on 20 health conditions spread throughout seven areas of health, added Dr Alexandra Rauch from the WHO’s Rehabilitation Programme.

“It really shows the comprehensiveness of rehabilitation. It’s not about only improving body functions. It’s about improving life areas of people, and also including carers and families in rehabilitation programmes,” said Rauch.

Image Credits: Megha Kaveri.