Policy statement: Armed violence

The World Confederation for Physical Therapy (WCPT) believes that physical therapists play a vital role in dealing with the

Health: 'Health' is defined in the WHO constitution of 1948 as a state of complete physical, social and mental well-being, and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity.

See also Health promotion

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problems and functional limitations that are the direct consequence of armed violence and the use of landmines and other weapons of war, even in peace times. Health service delivery systems in countries where significant violence has occurred rarely have the

Capacity: Describes an individual’s ability to execute a task or an action. It may be associated with both mental and physical capacity.

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to respond to the demands placed on them. Landmines, cluster munitions and remnants of weapons of war, in particular, pose an indiscriminate threat to health and continue to be active long after conflicts have ended.

Rehabilitation: A set of measures that assist individuals who experience, or are likely to experience, disability to achieve and maintain optimal functioning in interaction with their environments. A distinction is sometimes made between habilitation, which aims to help those who acquire disabilities congenitally or early in life to develop maximal functioning; and rehabilitation, where those who have experienced a loss in function are assisted to regain maximal functioning.

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services and equipment provision are often poorly funded and inadequate to enable individuals to achieve the full functional recovery of which they are capable and to which they have a right.