Life after injury
A rehabilitation manual for the injured and their helpers

In many ways this important book Life after injury, first published at the end of 2002, is the rehabilitation worker's equivalent of Where There Is No Doctor, by David Werner. (With more than 2 million copies in print in more than 80 languages, Where There Is No Doctor is probably the most widely used health care manual in developing countries.)

The writers of Life after injury, Liz Hobbs, Susan McDonough and Ann O'Callaghan, have between them many decades of experience in physiotherapy and occupational therapy, both in their home country of Australia including with remote indigenous communities, and in Asia, Africa and Latin America.

Their wide-ranging experience over many different cultures and rehabilitation models, including working with many injured and disabled people both in war zones and in regular village life. Drawing on this experience they developed the philosophies that underpin the book:

1. Rehabilitation is most successful if it is holistic and community-based with national support.
2. A rehabilitation manual needs to have comprehensive information to be useful. It must give all the information needed to manage most injuries and disabilities, but also it needs to be light-weight so it can be easily carried in a knapsack. (Life after injury is printed on lightweight paper.)
3. The book must teach people how to solve problems.
4. Injured and disabled people, rehabilitation workers, and community members, must be empowered in each stage of rehabilitation.

Life after injury includes:

• A clear indication of goals for each condition
• Step-by-step instructions, including any special warnings
• Easy-to-find cross-references to concepts covered in other sections of the book
• 1,400 drawings and photos that clearly illustrate exercises, positions and warnings
• Stories from field experience that give a realistic view of what can be achieved

Life after injury is highly recommended for trauma care workers globally. If you have a friend or relative working as a volunteer or on an overseas aid program, this would make a wonderfully appropriate gift, for them personally, or for the project with which they are working.

What others say about Life after injury:

"The beauty of Life after injury is that the authors encourage rehabilitation workers and therapists - in partnership with the injured persons and relatives - to sensitively yet systematically evaluate the person's full range of needs, fears, hopes and possibilities. Family, and community understanding and support, along with consideration of local and cultural factors, are celebrated as integral to this process. In sum, Life after injury is a goldmine of comprehensive information for assessing needs and carrying out rehabilitation in difficult circumstances in a way that preserves the dignity and caring human touch of all concerned."

David Werner, author of 'Where There Is No Doctor', 'Helping Health Workers Learn', 'Disabled Village Children' and 'Nothing About Us Without Us".

"Doctors and surgeons often consider the job complete when victims of injury are carried out of the operating theatre - and definitely so when the patients have left the orthopaedic centre with a prosthesis on. Twenty years of trauma care and surgery in war zones and minefields in the South has taught us that they are wrong: a lot of trauma victims in poor communities suffer from chronic pain and a sense of worthlessness - so much so that they simply cannot use an artificial limb - much less provide for their family. In fact, poverty is as much a trauma as the injury itself. This book tells how the victim, with his family and with YOU, can find strategies to cope. The book is a MUST for anybody - graduate and non-graduate - involved in trauma care."

Hans Husum MD, author of 'Save Lives, Save Limbs' and 'War Surgery Field Manual'

Click here to visit the Life After Injury website: http://www.lifeafterinjury.org

Click here for a detailed background to the book (PDF format).

Contents of Life after injury:
• Introduction. 1. What is rehabilitation 2. Families and friends 3. Bringing rehabilitation to the people 4. Working out what to do
• Healing
• Section 1. Early rehabilitation 5. The first seven days 6. Long term care
• Section 2. More problems after injury 7. Pain and emotional problems 8. Pressure sores 9. Infections of joints and bones 10. Wounds 11. Swelling
• Section 3. Rehabilitation of specific injuries 12. Spinal cord injury 13. Brain injury 14. Nerve injury 15. Burns 16. Amputations
• Section 4. Healing and rehabilitation of fractures 17. Care of fractures 18. Plaster casts 19. What to do for people in plaster casts 20. What to do for people in traction 21. What to do for people in slings
• Becoming Able
• Section 5. Solving problems with moving and doing activities 22. How to find solutions 23. Finding the causes of movement problems 24. Weakness 25. Stiffness
• Section 6. Splints 26. Introduction to splints 27. Choosing which arm splints to use 28. Choosing which leg splints to use 29. Using splinting materials 30. Instructions in making splints
• Section 7. Moving around and doing activities 31. Walking, mobility and equipment 32. Finding ways to do daily activities
• Joining in.
• 33. Returning to work 34. Encouraging positive community attitudes 35. Making places accessible Getting organised 36. Setting up a rehabilitation programme 37. Your work as a rehabilitation worker 38. Sharing rehabilitation skills 39. Advice for expatriate trainers
• Appendices
  Record forms
  Normal movement References
  Glossary

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