As of midnight on August 31, 2012 our Rehab Week submissions entry deadline will officially close.
We will no longer be accepting submissions after that time.

We got an overwhelming response this year and want to thank everyone who entered!

On September 16, as National Rehab Week begins, we will publish the profiles of every team that has submitted an entry. Check back then to celebrate with us and Rehab teams around the country!

In the meantime, click here to get into the Rehab Week spirit now!

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National Rehabilitation Week was first started by a health system in Pennsylvania in 1976 as a local awareness campaign to educate people on the value and power of rehabilitation.  The concept spread to healthcare facilities across the country, and in 1990 they banded together to secure a Presidential declaration of the third week in September as National Rehabilitation Week.

This year, ADVANCE for Occupational Therapy Practitioners, along with our sister publications ADVANCE for Physical Therapy and Rehab Medicine and ADVANCE for Speech Language Pathologists and Audiologists, are joining to bring you ADVANCE's first annual National Rehabilitation Week Celebration, Sept. 16-22!

We want to recognize those who make rehabilitation the powerful tool it is in improving patients' function and ability to participate as fully as possible in everyday life - you, the therapists!  We know, however, that OT, PT and speech therapy don't exist in silos in the real healthcare world - multidisciplinary and collaborative care is, indeed, the gold standard in most rehab settings.

To acknowledge the importance of that collaboration, both to therapists and to the patients they care for, our Rehab Week program will honor multidisciplinary teams that exemplify teamwork in rehabilitation care.

Do you and your colleagues work together like a finely tuned engine? Have you established a unique multidisciplinary program to meet the needs of your specific patient population? Do you co-treat in creative ways? Do you use novel or cutting-edge communication methods to make patient care as effective as possible? We want to hear from you! Email us at RehabGroup@advanceweb.com and tell us what makes your rehab team great.

Requirements

• A rehab team must consist of at least two members representing at least two of the three major rehab disciplines (occupational therapy, physical therapy and speech-language pathology). Teams may include members of other disciplines, but the majority of the team must be rehab therapists.
• Submissions should be no longer than 500 words, and should focus on teamwork, collaboration, communication and/or other facets of care provision that take advantages of the strengths of each profession/team member.
• Team members as well as manager and employers may submit entries for the team. One submission per team only, please.
• Entries must include contact information for one team representative, as well as names and professional credentials of all members of the team, and the name of your facility. Please do not include the name of the facility in the text of your essay. 
• Email your entry to RehabGroup@advanceweb.com either in the body of the email or as an attachment (Microsoft Word or Adobe .pdf documents only, please).
• One group photograph should be included as an attachment to the submission; photographs are not required to participate.
• The deadline for submissions is August 31, 2012.

Celebrating Rehab Week

In September we will launch our National Rehab Week Celebration site, which will offer tips on celebrating Rehab Week in your facility, cards and certificates you can send to your colleagues, and articles on multidisciplinary care from the ADVANCE archives.

On September 16, as National Rehab Week begins, we will publish on the site the profiles of every team that has submitted an entry. OTs, PTs and speech therapists across the country will be able to read stories of successful teamwork by their peers that has made a positive impact on patient care.