Rehabilitation through adapted sports: The French military way

Abstract

Since ancient civilizations, health through sports is a fundamental military rule. Bonaparte first integrates by law sports education in military schools. After word war I and II, a collective awareness has emerged, often under the impulse of mutilated warriors. Then, military sport then became a strong tool of peace among nations, and the awareness of this lever led to the creation of the CISM (International Military Sports Council) in 1948. France has developed a strong link between each steps of military sports management. The aim of this presentation is to sum up the military PMR French departments organisation and missions. Its strong links with the military forces, including Navy and Air forces, has strengthened since the recent conflicts in Afghanistan, Middle East and terrorists attacks. Since the use of Improvised Explosive Devices, major limb injuries and traumatic amputations have emerged. The multidisciplinary approach of Percy Military hospital, is now highlighting a category of high-level expectations young wounded soldiers, whose aim is to go back to duty, and to get back to their former sporty way of life. Since 2001, a French multidisciplinary process is improving, including military PMR, psychiatry practitioners, social workers, and headquarters, leading to the creation of wounded aid cells, and reconstruction courses by adapted sports. The global reflection around the recovery of a sport with a residual disability is a fundamental mission of PMR military departments. Thanks to the implementation of financial means, (including possibility of purchasing electronical high technologies prostheses), there is now a high lightening of these wounded soldiers, through local and international events like Invictus games or Ad victoriam. Thanks to the multidisciplinary approach of the wounded soldier, and the inclusion of adapted sport has a way of life, the glimpse at these soldiers is changing, in French armed forces but also in French population.