For a three years period I was head of a project called – Wheelchair Academy (Rullstolsakademien). This project was owned by FIFH in collaboration with spinal cord specialists. The main goal for this project was to increase independence for people who are dependent on wheelchair. This regardless of their diagnose and age. The under lying reason behind this project, who was government funded, was that every year more than 600 wheelchairs are prescribed in the south of Sweden for medical reasons but in most cases these were given without anyone showing the receiver in how to handle them.

The consequence of not knowing how to use your wheelchair effectively is a feeling of insecurity which has devastating effect on – mobility, employment, physical and mental wellbeing and in large their quality of life.

The project was designed as a twelve week course covering a variety of subjects and the progress that was made by the approximately 100 participants was astonishing. Parallel to the course we conducted prescriber courses in order to strengthening the physiotherapists in their work roles.

Here you can download a PDF-file that contains the final report describing the entire project (in Swedish). (PDF)