Hello again, John here.

The amazing summer of Olympics and Paralympics is about to come to a close, but how incredibly inspirational it has been. I was lucky enough to go to some of the events at the London Games with my family and we now have some fantastic experiences and memories to recall for ever.

All of the athletes at both Games have doubtless overcome adversity and tough times of some sort in order to compete and achieve. In particular, the Paralympians who have sustained their disabilities through accidental injury or, in the case of ex-services personnel, perhaps violence will all have been through the long and tough process of rehabilitation from their injuries. It’s likely that all of the other athletes will have many experiences of rehab too, but those with accident or violence acquired injuries and disabilities to recover from have the closest parallels to the remarkable clients I work with.

It’s an unfortunate fact that in my job I meet people once something nasty has already happened and they have been hurt. It’s my job to help them come through that terrible experience and, very importantly, help them to achieve the very best outcome and recovery that they can. No two people are the same and so the path to rehab and recovery is a very personal and subjective thing. Some of it is about helping them to secure fair and appropriate financial compensation to safeguard their future, but some of it is also about securing the best physical and mental outcome so far as their permanent well-being is concerned.

Rehabilitation is a long word and it has a lot of meanings and implications. It is to do with body and soul, physical and psychological, but it can also include things like securing and funding appropriate treatment and therapy, or perhaps sourcing aids and appliances that help to maximise the optimum recovery and garner the ability to cope and then thrive in the future.

Opponents in injury compensation claims are usually big insurance companies and they have an interest in rehabilitation too. They want accident victims who are claiming compensation to make the best recovery possible. This means that they are very keen to fund and organise, or at least help with, active rehabilitation. Cynically speaking you might say that this is not really altruism and good will on their part, but more to do with the fact that the better the injured person’s recovery, the more likely they are to go back to work sooner and get on with their lives and so the compensation will be less likely to be very high.

Although the big insurers might be a bit cynical in this regard in trying to minimise what they pay out, their instincts are right. It is better for the injured person, for his or her family and for society in general for them to get the best recovery possible, allowing them to move on with their life and achieve the best that they can.

Looking at the inspirational and high achieving athletes we’ve been watching you can see that they are squeezing the pips out of life and taking every opportunity and aspiration to the max. Rehabilitation is both a resource and an opportunity.

Will blog again soon,

John