Critical Care Psychology and Rehabilitation

When contemplating the broad field of critical care and all of its complexities, rehabilitation and psychology practice is not likely among the top ten services that clinicians, patients, or the public think of, and rightly so. The vast majority of patients who require intensive care arrive at death's door, and many linger in a limbo-like space somewhere between life and the afterlife. The primary focus at this juncture is often on pressing matters such as reestablishing and stabilizing basic bodily functions, optimizing life-saving machine settings, and deciding who does and does not need additional, urgent interventions. Still, just beneath the surface of this fascinating, multilayered environment, the need for psychologists and rehabilitation-oriented clinicians is everywhere, in large part because intensive care stands among the most emotionally intense and physically taxing hospital-based settings for everyone involved - patients, families, caregivers, and staff alike. Despite this, recognition that psychologists and rehabilitation-oriented professionals could and should be more integrated within the critical care team is uncommon. In fact, it can be argued that some European countries are ahead of the United States (US) in this regard (Agarwala, Ahmed, & Patil, 2011; Andreoli, Novaes, Karam, & Knobel, 2001; Jackson & Jutte, 2016; Peris et al., 2011; Sukantarat, Greer, Brett, & Williamson, 2007; Tan, Brett, & Stokes, 2009; Van den Born-van Zanten, Dongelmans, Dettling-Ihnenfeldt, Vink, & Van der Schaaf, 2016). Fortunately, there are growing integrative trends in the US. In 2010, a conference was convened by the Society of Critical Care Medicine (SCCM) with broad goals to inform stakeholders about the multiple long-term consequences of critical illness (e.g., Postintensive Care Syndrome [PICS]) and initiate--