It is going to take a lot of time and money to heal returning wounded service members – not only building their strength and healing their injuries but also giving back their confidence and Independence.

America’s Next War – Rehabilitating Wounded Warriors

America’s next fight will take place thousands of miles away from the battlefields of Iraq and Afghanistan, in special cities where some of the wars’ most grievously wounded troops begin their journeys to their new normal. TIME reporter Nate Rawlings, himself an Iraq War veteran, takes an inside look at Brooke Army Medical Center, a place where, as some have said, miracles are manufactured

By Nate Rawlings – San Antonio
TIME Specials

Sergeant Sebastian Gallegos is standing in the middle of the kitchen, staring at a carton of eggs on the counter. “You can do this,” his occupational therapist, Lisa Smurr, tells him. “It’s too easy.” He exhales and reaches toward the carton with his robotic right arm, which beeps three times before the pincer at the end of it closes around an egg. As he carries the egg toward a mixing bowl, the pincer tightens, cracking the shell. Gallegos’s sense of humor, however, is still intact. “At least I didn’t get my hands dirty,” he says.
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Locate State Resources for Workers with Developmental Disabilities at the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health website – HERE

Approximately 4.5 million individuals in the United States have developmental disabilities such as intellectual disability, autism, Down syndrome, cerebral palsy, traumatic brain injury, and epilepsy. An estimated 30 percent of working-age adults in this population are employed, either in facility-based settings (“sheltered workshops”) or in the conventional labor market. The number of those employed has increased steadily since the 1990s and this growth is expected to continue for the foreseeable future.

Like all other workers, workers with developmental disabilities (WDD) are at risk of experiencing a work-related injury or illness. Some research has indicated that WDD may be at increased risk on the job due to characteristics of their disabilities such as poor judgment, lack of awareness of danger, impulsivity and restlessness, and difficulties communicating. However, since there is no national data source that specifically tracks work-related illness and injury among WDD, the true illness and injury risk is unknown.
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