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Seating and mobility find home at APTA

Seating and mobility find home at APTA

ALEXANDRIA, Va. - The American Physical Therapy Association has established a new special interest group, Assistive Technology/Seating and Wheeled Mobility, to provide practitioners with a forum for communication and education.

“Within the ATPA, there has never been a real home for those of us who work in seating and mobility,” said Barbara Crane, chairwoman of the AT/SWM and a member of the Clinician Task Force.

The purpose of the new SIG, which operates under the APTA's Neurology Section, is to give PTs and PTAs a forum to discuss legislative and regulatory issues impacting clinical practice, and to share education, training and resource information.

Because members of the Neurology Section often work with those who have neurological impairments like spinal cord injuries and other degenerative developmental disabilities, which often require complex rehab and assistive technology, it was a natural match, said Laura Cohen, vice chairwoman of the AT/SWM and executive director of The Clinician Task Force.

“Once you have a SIG, you are given certain resources,” she said.

Those resources include access to the Neurology Section's board of directors, input on strategic planning, a voice at section meetings and a budget.

The group plans to establish clinical practice guidelines for providing quality seating and wheeled mobility services and to create a specialty-training certificate for those who complete a certain amount of training sessions.

“Those are the two areas that we would like to see accomplished in a year,” said Crane.

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