Dec 31, 2012

I Don't Know Where This Is Headed

     From a notice that Social Security is having published in the Federal Register on January 2:
We are seeking information and comments from other Federal agencies' regarding their intention to use the WHO ICF[World Health Organization International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health] as a standard for coding functional capacity with broad potential for application to the business processes of other Federal agencies and researchers throughout the world. We invite other interested Federal agencies involved in disability monitoring to collaborate with us to evaluate an ICF-based standard for coding functional capacity in Federal disability programs. We also invite interested public and private parties to comment on appropriate Federal direction on capturing data on functioning. ...
The WHO ICF is a classification of health and health-related domains, including a list of body functions and a list of domains of activity and participation (see www.who.int/classification/icf/en/). The ICF for Children and Youth (ICF-CY) is a derived version of the ICF designed to record characteristics of the developing child and the influence of environments surrounding the child. The ICF and the ICF-CY reflect WHO’s framework for measuring health and disability at both individual and population levels. ...
We are studying several uses for ICF coding. We could use it, for example, to describe function in activities of daily living, to describe residual functional capacity (to satisfy a specific set of disability criteria), or to develop a compendium of job descriptions that includes mental and physical functional requirements.
     You can order your copy of the ICF for $50.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

There is a disturbing trend to have goverment adopt private agencies' standards (building codes, for example, the Diagnostic and Satistical Manual, industry standards) that are only available at a substantial charge, copywrited, and frequently not available in public librarys (or on-line).
The private agency periodically changes their standards and have panals with votes from industry.

I have not seen a Court face this issue and call it an illicit deligation of legislative (or administrative) authority by such "adoptions by reference."