Article Review 1: Specific Activity

Article review one: Therapeutic benefit of an activity.

Name of article: Psycho-social impact of participation in the National Veterans

Wheelchair Games and Winter Sports Clinic

Name of journal: Disability and Rehabilitation

Name of author(s): MICHELLE L. SPORNER, SHIRLEY G. FITZGERALD, BRAD E. DICIANNO, DIANE COLLINS, EMILY TEODORSKI, PAUL F. PASQUINA & RORY A. COOPER

When and how did you locate this article? I located this article on November 1^st 2012 and I found it through ebscohost.

Two paragraph synopsis of what you learned in this article:

This article is about veterans who participate in in in wheel chair games including; National Veterans Wheelchair Games (NVWG) and Winter Sports Clinic (WSC). The goal of the study was to see how these events impact the veteran’s lives. They had 132 veterans participate in this study some of whom participated in one of these two wheel chair sport events.  They looked at all of their demographics, sports participation, community integration, self-esteem and quality of life and compared and analyzed the results.

The researchers used different assessment techniques to collect there information. They ended up finding that “participation [in NVWG and WSC] positively impacts their life as the majority of the participants expressed that their lives have been improved”.  They also expressed that they had gained confidence and motivation from participating in their various sports. When compared to the veterans that did not participate in wheel chair sports they found that the athletes had “higher mobility and social integration scores” than the non-athletes. They were surprised that the veterans who participated in NVWG and WSC and lower physical and cognitive scores but they attributed this to the fact that those who attend may have additional functional limitations.

How will you apply this knowledge to your professional development? My ultimate goal is to eventually work with wounded warriors in a VA. I have always thought that participating in a physical activity is extremely beneficial for people of all ages and abilities and this article has confirmed that belief. No matter where I work as a CTRS I plan to incorporate physical activity and more specifically sports.

Would you recommend this article for other TR students?  Why or why not? I would recommend this to other TR students because we will all likely work with people in wheel chairs at some point in our careers if we haven’t already. I believe that it is important that people know that anyone can participate in sports and reap the benefits.