The Rehab Group, originally established in 1949 as the Rehabilitation Institute to provide training services to people with tuberculosis, is an international not-for-profit organisation providing health and social care, training and education, rehabilitation, employment and commercial services.
Overview
The organisation provides services to people with disabilities, people with autism, people with acquired brain injury, people with mental health issues, older people, carers and others who are marginalised. Each year, more than 54,000 people and their families benefit from the services provided by Rehab’s 3,500 staff in almost 250 locations.
Rehab Services
Ireland
In Ireland, Rehab Group operates through a number of divisions: RehabCare, its health and social care division, provides services to 3,000 people each year such as resource centres, residential and supported accommodation, as well as home-based, outreach and respite care services. HeadsUp is a mental health promotion project aimed at young people in support of national suicide prevention efforts; it offers a number of services including HeadsUp Web offering access to mental health supports and well-being tools, and HeadsUp Text, a signposting service where people can access details of support services on a range of issues by texting HEADSUP to 50424. National Learning Network, its training and employment division, provides training courses to over 5,000 students each year from 50 centres across Ireland. Rehab Enterprises, its commercial division, provides recycling, logistics, packaging and retail services, and is Ireland’s largest non-government employer of people with disabilities, employing more than 300 disabled people of a total workforce of 530. Rehab Lotteries is its fundraising arm and markets a range of scratch card lottery games, online bingo and other games. It also operates Rehab Radio Bingo on local radio stations and the Rehab Great Investment Race with teams of leading investment fund managers in Ireland.
In the United Kingdom, Rehab Group operates through a number of organisations: TBG Learning, its UK training and employment division, provides learning, employability services and other supports to over 35,000 people each year in 23 centres across Wales and England. Momentum, incorporating Momentum Care, Momentum Skills and Haven, provides rehabilitation, training and care services to more than 2,900 people in Scotland and England. Services include training and employment skills, job retention and community rehabilitation; social care and supported living services to people in their own homes; and social enterprise businesses such as recycling, packaging, component assembly and print finishing. The Chaseley Trust operates a residential home and independent living accommodation in Eastbourne and provides residential and respite care, rehabilitation, day care and outpatient therapy services. Rehab JobFit is a partnership between Rehab Group and Interserve plc, and is a prime provider for the Department for Work and Pensions in delivering the Work Programme and the Mandatory Work Activity Programme in Wales and South West England in supporting those who are unemployed in gaining jobs. Rehab Group also operates in the Netherlands and Poland, through its division Rehab Enterprises. In Poland, it provides logistics, computer keyboard printing and electronic equipment repair services, while in the Netherlands, it manages product returns for software manufacturers.
People of the year awards
The group has organised the "People of the Year Awards", a set of awards recognising ordinary people and public figures for their contributions to Irish and international society, annually since 1975.
Controversies
Rehab's reputation in Ireland was described as "tarnished" by the Irish Times in 2017, after it was revealed that its fundraising scratchcard scheme was performing extremely poorly and that "Rehab had made profits of only €9,452 on €4 million in scratchcard sales". In November 2018 a group of twenty people occupied the Rehab offices in Park West, protesting over the lack of supports offered to people with polio. The protestors claimed that following a merger with the Polio Fellowship of Ireland, Rehab possessed €8m in assets and income, which was not being used to support people with polio. They claimed that "these assets were bought with funds raised by polio survivors, their families and friends. Only 7 per cent of this money has been spent on people who had polio".
