As part of the TRUE – Trauma Rehabilitation for Ukraine project, we delivered a series of advanced-level webinars, “Rehabilitation After Spinal Cord Injury and Traumatic Brain Injury,” designed for rehabilitation professionals who already work with patients following severe injuries and wanted to deepen their expertise and strengthen their clinical reasoning. The sessions covered topics including spasticity, contractures, vestibular rehabilitation, and more.
More than 1,400 participants registered for the webinars, including physical therapists, occupational therapists, nurses, and physicians in Physical and Rehabilitation Medicine from across Ukraine.
Over the course of the four webinars, participants explored:
- the pathophysiology of spasticity, spastic dystonia, and contractures following brain injury;
- assessment and measurement of spasticity and contractures;
- pharmacological management of spasticity, spastic dystonia, and spasticity-related pain;
- the role of botulinum toxin and evidence-based interventions, including stretching, splinting, and serial casting;
- fundamental knowledge of the vestibular system and vestibular rehabilitation following traumatic brain injury;
- clinical reasoning through case-based discussions and decision-making in rehabilitation practice.
The UK faculty was led by Teresa Clark from the Royal Hospital for Neuro-disability, together with Danielle Blacker and Amanda Mayle. We sincerely thank them for sharing their expertise and for their thoughtful engagement with participants throughout the programme.
The most active participants will be invited to attend a two-day in-person training on 21–22 September in Lviv, where they will further develop their practical skills through hands-on learning.
The webinar programme was designed based on a survey of 314 rehabilitation professionals from across Ukraine, who identified the topics they considered most relevant to their clinical practice. We are grateful to everyone who contributed to the survey and participated in the webinars.
The webinars were developed within the framework of the Ukrainian-Swiss project “Trauma Rehabilitation for Ukraine (TRUE)”, implemented by the Swiss Tropical and Public Health Institute (Swiss TPH) in consortium with the Patients of Ukraine Charitable Foundation, in partnership with the Protez Hub Charitable Foundation, the Ukrainian Association of Physical Therapy, and the Ukrainian Society of Speech and Language Therapy.
The project is made possible through the support of Switzerland.
