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Empowering people with disabilities to achieve and maintain their well-being, independent physical functioning, and community participation requires an in-depth understanding of the multidimensional nature of health and function. The Rehabilitation Research and Training Center (RRTC) on Developing Optimal Strategies in Exercise and Survival Skills to Increase Health and Function was created to develop and test innovative strategies to enable people with disabilities to achieve and maintain their optimal health and function; to assess the optimal dosing, cost-effectiveness, and value of selected approaches to achieve and maintain their health and function; and to disseminate information regarding these strategies to various stakeholders. We also will conduct knowledge translation activities and build research capacity through educating future generations of disability researchers, professionals, people with disability and their families, and the general public, by providing them with the tools and training they need to be able to understand important information regarding health, function, community living, and research methods.

Specific objectives are to:

• Evaluate the contributions of the task-specific training parameters, intensity and variability on lower extremity function post-stroke;
• Evaluate the impact of focused, intensive training applied during clinical inpatient physical therapy on mobility outcomes, health and community participation in patients with acute neurological injury;
• Conduct a randomized clinical trial to compare the efficacy and cost-effectiveness of two different dosing methods of providing an Intensive Comprehensive Aphasia Program; 
• Develop and evaluate the feasibility, acceptability and effectiveness of a targeted evidence-based Peer Health Navigator program for Medicaid beneficiaries with physical disabilities;
• Assess the economic and social value of each proposed research intervention;
• Train the future generation of rehabilitation researchers;
• Disseminate, implement and utilize accurate, relevant, and usable information about health, function and community living for people with physical disabilities and professionals

The complex nature of the disability experience means that efforts to develop innovative interventions to address these issues, and to conduct methodologically sound research to test their effectiveness, require an interdisciplinary approach in which clinicians, consumers, investigators, and specialists with seemingly disparate expertise and backgrounds can work together in a coherent fashion toward a common goal. The collaborative model built into the structure of the proposed RRTC will increase the likelihood of success in meeting these objectives.