The medical doctors involved in the rehabilitation field are, most of the time, doctors in physical medicine and rehabilitation (neurologists can also play the role of team leader). They are responsible of the diagnosis, assess the severity of the disease and the associated troubles and complications. Based on this evaluation, they built a specific rehabilitation program for this specific patient (e.g., Does this patient require occupational therapy? How many sessions of physiotherapy are required? Does this patient need surgery or pharmacological treatment?). During all the rehabilitation process, the doctors control the progress of the patients and, in collaboration with the other professionals in charge of the patient, modify the treatment if needed.

Physiotherapists are one of the cornerstones of the physical rehabilitation. Generally, it is with physiotherapist that the patients spend most of the rehabilitation time. There are plenty of different techniques, approaches, and philosophies in physiotherapy. Physiotherapists adapt their treatments and exercises depending on the nature of the diseases (neurological, orthopedics). One of the most popular approaches for neurological disease is the neurodevelopment treatment (NDT) (Bobath 1967). The aim of this method is to facilitate the movement by reducing muscle tone and inhibiting primitive and abnormal reflex. Another important aspect of the NDT approach is to allow the patients to have a greater independence and really focus on the movement. We won’t list here each technique (details will be provided in Chap. 4). From a scientific point of view, it is important to underline that no particular technique has a higher level of evidence than another one (Kollen et al. 2009). The other important point about physiotherapy and rehabilitation is that the more the patient is moving and performing the exercises the better and faster the progress will be (Langhorne et al. 2011).

Occupational therapists and physiotherapists are working closely together. Physiotherapists are mainly working on the muscles (e.g., to avoid spasticity) and joints (e.g., to avoid retraction and restoring/preserving enough range of motion); occupational therapists focus their work on (fine) motor function. To summarize roughly, the physiotherapists try to restore enough mobility, and the occupational therapists try to make patients (re)learn some (basic) and functional motion in order to increase their independences (Arbesman et al. 2013). To increase patients’ independence, two different, but often complementary, approaches are possible: improving directly the function (in collaboration with physiotherapists) or modifying the environment to allow patient performing these activities, e.g., modify and adopt home environment in order to prevent falls in older people (Pighills et al. 2011), modify the classroom for student with autism (Kinnealey et al. 2012), etc.

Depression and anxiety are highly prevalent in patients with chronic diseases, but remain too often undertreated despite significant negative consequences on patient health. Multiple consequences of a chronic disease diagnosis can contribute to depression or anxiety: the loss of a sense of self-worth, anxiety, and uncertainty about the future, loss of relationships and social isolation, and feelings of guilt (Dejean et al. 2013). In the perspective of a more holistic approach of the patient, a psychological and eventually spiritual support must be provided to patient in the early start of the disease (Schulz-Stübner 2007). It is important to note that this psychological support is not only provided by the medical team, the role of the family and relatives is also preponderant (Glass et al. 2004).

Lesions in the brain (e.g., stroke, cerebral palsy) do not only induce motor problem. Depending on the localization of the primary lesions, some other troubles can be induced. The location of the brain responsible for speech production (Broca’s area) and speech comprehension (Wernicke’s area) are often affected during stroke. Rehabilitation of the speech, or other communication ways, is thus an important part of the process for some pathology, especially in the light of the definition of the health by the WHO (e.g., optimal interaction with the environment).

The use of prosthesis or medical devices, as temporary or permanent help, aims to give a greater autonomy to patients during activities of daily living and/or rehabilitation session. Depending on the severity of the disability medical devices varied from full support electric wheelchairs in case of severe paraplegia to ankle’s brace support to avoid spasticity of the triceps surae during gait in case of light form of spasticity.

For the lower limbs, most orthoses focus on controlling ankle position and kinematic motion during the gait (McNee et al. 2007).

For the upper limbs, the objective is to improve function by increasing the range of motion, limit deformation, and increase functions (Autti-Rämö et al. 2006).

The settings and the optimal functioning of the materials is a team effort including not only the prosthetists but also physiotherapists and occupational therapists. Casting can be an alternative to orthoses in order to increase the efficacy of treatment (e.g., intensive rehabilitation, surgery, botulinum toxin injection) (Hayek et al. 2010).

The definition of the rehabilitation includes “to achieve and maintain optimal functioning in interaction with their environments” (WHO 2011). It is therefore obvious that sport should be considered as a complement to the conventional rehabilitation treatment not only for the physical benefits but also for the important and positive effects of the social interaction. Sports for disabled people have been popularized by the huge development and the media coverage of the Paralympic Games. New specialties are emerging in the faculty of physiotherapy or sport sciences in physical activities adapted for people with disabilities.

Important efforts are also done in the development of affordable material (prosthesis, wheelchairs, etc.) to allow disabled people to train and enjoy sport’s activities.

Finally, we can also note here the importance that the animals can play during rehabilitation and in particular horses during hippotherapy session.

Although only a few people would spontaneously think about social workers in the rehabilitation team, these ones play an important role. Social workers try to solve some obstacles related to rehabilitation (e.g., access to care, financial issues). They also have an important role in the dialogue with the family. They do not only provide material support (access to institution, materials, etc.), they can also be a part on the treatment (e.g., social workers can visit the family to help and support parents with disabled children (Weindling et al. 2007)). This example underlines the fact that the disease affects not only the patient but also his family. It is therefore sometimes interesting to work with family to decrease stress and anxiety level by allowing the patient to evolve in a more favorable environment.