The 10th annual North American Collaborating Center Conference on the International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health (ICF) was held in Halifax, Nova Scotia, June 1 to 4, 2004. The theme for the conference was "Advancing a Research Agenda for ICF." Participants came from Canada, the United States, Switzerland, the Netherlands, Australia, Brazil, Egypt, Finland, France, Guinea, Japan, Nigeria, and South Africa.

This meeting was designed to develop a comprehensive North American research agenda for ICF. This is needed because the ICF is a new and multi-dimensional classification, encompassing both a medical and a social model of disability, and has not been used extensively in its current structure. The ICF is intended to have a number of applications for health care and disability data management, research, clinical practice, social policy and education.

Rehabilitation professional organizations are involved in implementation of the ICF, such as with regard to scope of practice, models of service, curriculum development, as well as clinical applications. The American Therapeutic Recreation Association (ATRA) has joined the implementation efforts and three members of ATRA’s ICF Team, Bryan McCormick, Youngkhill Lee, and John Jacobson, presented a paper entitled “Operationalizing Community Integration via the ICF” at this conference. Additionally, ATRA was recognized by the American Psychological Association as a contributor in the drafting of “ICF for clinical practice: procedural manual and guide for standardized application of ICF”, which is due for publication in 2005.

Within the United States, the ICF is being embraced by federal agencies, major professional health organizations, leading research centers and rehabilitation leaders. The disability community is moving away from the medical model and the ICF is bridging the social and medical model of health care. The ICF is conducive with, and supports recreational therapy philosophy and practice. During the upcoming ATRA Annual Conference, the ATRA ICF team will share updates and new information from this meeting through an educational session.