Our Philosophy

Our aim is to be a nationally recognised Centre of Excellence for the provision of Interdisciplinary Rehabilitation Services

Clinical Excellence in an Interdisciplinary team environment is the cornerstone of our success:

SRI’s Directors fostered an interdisciplinary as opposed to a multidisciplinary team. This was based on their own clinical philosophies which was reinforced by contemporary research.

The key differences here are that multidiciplinary teams were already in existence, frequently within the hospital system. Essentially, these teams operate as a standard structure within New Zealand, but in the international literature the multidiciplinary team was increasingly being seen as a dated and limited concept. Principally this is because , individuals representing a particular discipline tended to remain “discipline specific” and failed to encourage important synergies and efficiencies through cooperation with their collegues. The multidiciplinary approach tends to focus excessively on particular disabilites and impariments and makes the assumption that improvements in these will lead to reduction in any handicap. The team members proposed a transdisciplinary team, which literally “goes across” the discipline boundaries depending on the particular problems of the Claimant, the specific skills of each of the team members and the potential efficiency gains. It is generally characterised by client-centred goal planning with recruitment of individual team members and groups of team members to achieve specific tasks towards those goals. The boundaries between these disciplines are less distinct with team members often having multiple skills. The transdisciplinary team of SRI, as it was established is flexible in that individual team members can move within this model to evolve a managment plan specific to the circumstances.

Southern Rehabilitation recognises the psychosocial complex underpinning musculoskeletal pain syndromes. For people presenting with continuing impairment beyond the acute post-injury phase, evidence indicates that the risk for developing functional disability (including failure to return to work) escalates rapidly. Continued treatment via a strictly mechanical model risks increased disability & effective intervention needs to attend to the evolving bio-psychosocial predicament.

Effective intervention requires assessment by a cohesive collaborative interdisciplinary team to identify barriers to recovery. These can then be addressed in an integrated rehabilitation programme which fosters self-management and encourages normalisation of function. Benefits include restored quality of life and functional and economic independence.

We understand that timely delivery of services is also a key part of providing effective rehabilitation solutions and recognise the importance of efficient process and attention to detail for our clients. We believe in investing in development of business and administrative systems to support our clinicians and meet critical timeframes.