rehabilitation: see physical therapy.

United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration (UNRRA), organization founded (1943) during World War II to give aid to areas liberated from the Axis powers. There were finally 52 participating countries, each of which contributed funds amounting to 2% of its national income in 1943. A sum of nearly $4 billion was expended on various types of emergency aid, including distribution of food and medicine and restoration of public services and of agriculture and industry. China, Czechoslovakia, Greece, Italy, Poland, the Ukrainian SSR, and Yugoslavia were the chief beneficiaries. UNRRA returned some 7 million displaced persons to their countries of origin and provided camps for about 1 million refugees unwilling to be repatriated. More than half the funds were provided by the United States, and the three directors general—Herbert H. Lehman, Fiorello La Guardia, and Gen. Lowell Rooks—were American. UNRRA discontinued its operations in Europe on June 30, 1947. Its remaining work, chiefly in China, ended on Mar. 31, 1949. The functions of UNRRA were transferred to other UN agencies, chiefly the International Refugee Organization, the Food and Agriculture Organization, and the United Nations Children's Fund.

or physiatry or physical therapy or rehabilitation medicine

Medical specialty treating chronic disabilities through physical means to help patients return to a comfortable, productive life despite a medical problem. Its objectives are pain relief, functional improvement or maintenance, training in essential activities, and functional testing of areas such as strength, mobility, breathing capacity, and coordination. Physical medicine may use diathermy, hydrotherapy, massage, exercise, and functional training. The last can mean learning to work with a guide dog or a prosthesis or learning new ways to carry out everyday activities with a limb missing, sometimes by using assistive devices. Physician specialists head rehabilitation teams including a physical therapist, rehabilitation engineer, rehabilitation nurse, psychological counselor, and sometimes a respiratory or speech therapist. Seealso occupational therapy; orthopedics.

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Administrative body (1943–47) for an extensive social-welfare program for war-ravaged nations. It distributed relief supplies and services, including shelter, food, and medicine, and helped with agricultural and economic rehabilitation. Its functions were later taken over by the International Refugee Organization, the World Health Organization, and UNICEF.

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