Getting on road to recovery
A NEW research program to help people recover better from road accidents is focused on Townsville.
The study is being run at The Townsville Hospital by the University of Queensland’s Recover Injury Research Centre.
Post doctoral research fellow Dr Elise Gane said the study was volunteer- based and focused on people returning to work and their general life after an accident. The study focused on people who had been involved in minor to moderate collisions.
“The majority of people have relatively minor injuries – they’re the ones being targeted,” she said.
Dr Gane said not a lot of work had been done about what impact road accidents had on people trying to return to work. The research will potentially help support people who might be struggling with the trauma.
Townsville Hospital Emergency Medicine Research Director Dr Vinay Gangathimmaiah said the study could improve people’s rehabilitation.
“People who died in unfortunate incidents are much smaller than the number who end up being injured and are taken away from work or are not able to work for the rest of their lives,” he said.
People who volunteer for the program will be monitored regularly for a year.
Email e. gane@ uq. edu. au for information.