The AHA supports "Joining Forces," an initiative to educate medical professionals about the common health challenges facing returning U.S. troops. As part of that effort, AHA News highlights on a recurring basis how hospitals are reaching out to returning veterans and their families.

Meeting Standards. Participants in Penn State's recreation-training class learn how to ensure that buildings conform to Americans with Disabilities Act standards. Magee Rehabilitation staff are among the instructors.

Recreation programming is playing an increasingly important role in returning wounded military personnel to a healthy family and community life.

To help these wounded warriors, Penn State University in University Park, PA, recently developed an innovative training program for military recreation managers — a three-year program funded by the Department of Defense, with some expert staffing support from Philadelphia's Magee Rehabilitation Hospital.

Jessica Rickard, a spinal cord injury team leader at Magee, and A.J. Nanayakkara, who heads Magee's wheelchair sports programs, are two of the training program's instructors. They give recreation managers their insights on the special needs of wounded veterans "insights that can help wounded veterans get more out of the military's recreational programs and resources.

"We're all learning a lot about effective programs... the tools and resources that help wounded soldiers return to a healthy and productive quality of life," Rickard says.
Inclusive recreation modifies activities and equipment for wounded veterans.

The recreation managers attending the Penn State program hear from instructors, like Rickard and Nanayakkara, and guest speakers about what it's like to live with spinal cord injuries, amputations and traumatic injuries.
The aim is to develop recreational programs that give injured soldiers an outlet to share their experiences and emotions through "appropriate adaptations and modifications," Rickard says. For example, military personnel with amputations may require different prosthetic feet to rock climb, stabilization straps to lift weights or flotation aids to swim. Those with post-traumatic stress disorder who experience adverse reactions to crowds and loud noises may need recreation activities structured in quieter settings.

Theatre. Wheelchair-bound patients participate in a theater class at Magee Rehabilitation Hospital. The hospital, nationally recognized for its rehabilitative programs, last year joined the AHA and others in becoming part of the "Joining Forces" campaign.

Rickard points out that the 96-bed Magee Rehabilitation Hospital has more than 50 years of experience in treating patients with these types of injuries.

Along with Philadelphia's Thomas Jefferson Hospital, Magee serves as the federally designated "Regional Spinal Cord Injury Center of Delaware Valley" — one of 14 such centers across the country.

The hospital last year joined the AHA and dozens of other organizations in the "Joining Forces" outreach campaign to support returning veterans and their families.

"We are proud to offer our expertise," said Jack Carroll, Magee's president and CEO. "The type of specific experience we have in treating brain injuries, spinal cord injuries and amputations, and the lessons learned from it, need to be available to those who need it the most."

At Magee, traditional therapies for veterans are complemented by day rehabilitation programs, vocational and nutritional counseling, peer support groups, job placement services, wheelchair sports and recreational activities, like horticultural and art therapy.

"We are seeing more and more soldiers coming back from overseas with these types of injuries and we should all do our part to help," says Magee's Rickard.

How is your hospital working with others to help veterans? Share your story by e-mailing AHA News Managing Editor Gary Luggiero at gluggiero@aha.org. To learn more about Joining Forces, go to www.joiningforcesonline.org. For more information on Magee Rehabilitation Hospital's programs, contact Kerry O'Connor, Magee's director of public relations, at KOConnor@MageeRehab.org.