G.F. Strong Outpatient Amputee Program

While we see some people for a pre-amputation consult, most people will not begin rehab until at least ten days after discharge from the hospital following your amputation. Following an initial assessment, the team will establish your rehab goals and the frequency of your appointments. This frequency may decrease over time as you do more at home and in your community. 

Several factors can influence the length of rehab, such as your skin healing, ability to learn new ways of doing things, goals, fitness level, and emotional adjustment to your amputation. There is also a lengthy prosthetic fitting process before receiving your final permanent prosthesis. 

Learning to walk again, as normally as possible, takes a lot longer than most people think it should. It takes your residual limb some time to tolerate the pressures of your body weight and learn new skills with your prosthesis. A previously healthy person may progress to walking as independently as able in approximately three months following a below-knee amputation and about 5-7 months following an above-knee amputation.

Depending on your needs, your rehab team may include a physiatrist (rehab doctor), physiotherapist, occupational therapist and social worker. The team will also work closely with your prosthetist. Services such as dietary, driver rehab, psychology, recreation therapy, sexual health, and vocational rehab are available as required.

If you require a team assessment by a physiatrist (rehab doctor) and a prosthetist/orthotist/physiotherapist, you may be referred to the G.F. Strong Prosthetics and Orthotics Clinic using the G.F. Strong outpatient referral form.