Most of us have seen inspiring images of amputees participating in the Paralympics, a local amputee participating in a sporting event, in TV advertisements, or success stories of returning veterans.
Unfortunately, those amputees are the exception and not the norm. The level of care needed to reach those achievements is a distant dream for most of the 2,000,000 U.S. citizens with an amputation.
Experts generally agree that the best results in amputee care result from a multidisciplinary approach, yet few amputees have the opportunity and resources to receive such care. Integrated care plans developed through the collaboration of many specialties including surgeons, physiatrists, prosthetists, physical and occupational therapists, biomedical engineers, rehabilitation psychologists, and social scientists are known to provide the best results. Despite this knowledge, few higher education institutions provide a cross-discipline exposure to students in a rehabilitation science doctoral program.
The Mobility is Freedom Fund (MiFF) is a nonprofit organization and we are a team of forward-thinking education innovators in education, developing strategies to enhance higher education in rehabilitation sciences with a focus on amputee care. We believe that all persons who experience limb loss have a right to access multidisciplinary rehabilitation treatment.
