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even if social support services are available, they are very few and that conditions are
worse in ruralareas where health services are not available at all..
1.2 BACKGROUND
Disabled persons are no longer kept in the institutions for a long period. This requires a
lot ofsupport by both family members and the community at large. The disabled persons
need to be wen motivated in order to meet their physical and psychological needs through
participation in their care. This also requires inspiration of hope to the disabled
individuals and their families by the whole rehabilitation team in order to proceed with
the rehabilitation process (Dittmar, 1989:4).
Lack of the above support has resulted in many health problems being experienced by
amputees and their families, as they fail to meet all the rehabilitation needs due to a lack
ofknowledge. The information given by the orthopaedic rehabilitation team on discharge
about community resources for rehabilitation is inadequate. The amputated patients are
poorly prepared for discharge. Discharge planning and community re-integration are not
done properly. Where this preparation is done, it is ofpoor quality such that the amputees
and their families do not gain from it.
There are no rehabilitation nurses in the clinics to continue with the care ofthe amputees
to ensure that discharge planning is done successfully and effectively. These
rehabilitation nurses will need to work together with the rehabilitation team members.
Research studies estimated that between 5% and 12% ofSouth Africans are moderately
to severely disabled. Despite this large percentage ofdisabled people, few services and
opportunities exist for people with disabilities to allow them to participate equally in
society (Mbeki, 1997:1).
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