Date of Award

2007

Document Type

Scholarly Project

Degree Name

Master of Occupational Therapy (MOT)

Department

Occupational Therapy

First Advisor

Jan Stube

Keywords

Amputees -- rehabilitation

Abstract

Being an athlete with an injury is difficult, but an amputation poses even more challenges to one's life dreams for sports competition. This scholarly project focused on advancing an athlete's community re-integration, specifically back into the sporting community. Presently, there is a gap in existing occupational therapy services for persons with amputations between the completion of inpatient rehabilitation and the return to full community re-integration, particularly for the sports competitor. This scholarly project product is a manual of sequential therapeutic activities for athletes who have the goal of returning to the occupation of sports participation. This product is intended to guide occupational therapists in working with athletes who have amputation and wish to fully re-integrate into the community, including competition in sports challenges such as the Paralympics.

The procedure included gathering of information through a review of the literature. This review included articles on amputation and relevant rehabilitation aspects, the Paralympics, and the occupational therapy rehabilitation process for persons post-amputation. The expansion of OT services for persons post-amputation who have the desire to return to a competitive sports participation role was developed for this scholarly project product.

This scholarly project included the following findings. A team approach is recommended for an individual with an amputation to have the best recovery (Kent & Fife, 1999). An individual with an amputation can have a low balance confidence and may be afraid of falling. Knowledge of this allows clinicians a better understanding of the events an individual with an amputation may go through (Miller & Deathe, 2004). An individual's level of participation in physical activity and sports may be affected by one's body image. Clinicians that encourage sports participation as a part of rehabilitation may have increased sports participation in their clients (Wetterhan, Hanson, & Levy, 2002). An individual's function with their wheelchair, their athletic discipline, and their capacity to train for hours explain and control the individual's aerobic capacity (Woude, Bouten, Veeger, & Gwinn, 2002).

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