Institute within the scope of the Federal Ministry of Health (BMG)
Institute within the scope of the Federal Ministry of Health (BMG)
The International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health (ICF) of the World Health Organization (WHO) serves as a unifying language to describe the functional status of health, of disability and of social impairment and relevant environmental factors of a person independent of countries or subjects.
In Germany the design of the 9th Social Security Bill (Sozialgesetzbuch, SGB IX), "Rehabilitation and participation of disabled people", was to a great extent influenced by the preceding version of ICF. The text of the Bill and further information is available at the Federal Government Commissioner for the Interests of the Disabled.
Switzerland is going to gain experiences in the practical application, the development of tools and by conceptual comparison with existing systems. These experiences are to facilitate the decision to make ICF a mandatory instrument for social security, social planning and disability statistics.
The English edition was published 2001 by the World Health Organization. Further information is available from the ICF web pages of WHO.
The official German language edition is based on the translation of a group of experts from Germany, Austria and Switzerland, who were already involved in the translation of the preceding versions, ICIDH-2 beta1 and beta2, and in the work on the final version of ICF. The group was headed by Dr. Schuntermann, Association of German Pension Insurers (Verband Deutscher Rentenversicherungsträger, VDR) and was funded by the Federal Ministries for Health, for Employment and by the VDR. Copyright on the German translation of this group was transferred to the Federal Republic of Germany, represented by DIMDI.