LUCAS – Links United for Coma Awakenings through Sport

LUCAS European Sport Collaborative Partnership (IT, BE, CY, DK, ES, LT, PT) aims to
create a stable European network for sharing information, expertise and good practices in
terms of models of rehabilitation through Sport, for the successful reintegration of people
with acquired disability from traumatic brain injury and spinal cord injury (in particular
resulting from a coma) and their families/caregivers.
The partnership will develop and test a structured, multidisciplinary and integrated
experimental methodology of rehabilitation through sport for these people. It will be a
comprehensive rehabilitation plan assisted by qualified personnel aimed not only to a
physical rehabilitation but also to a successful social reintegration of people with acquired
disability and their families.
It has been shown that the final outcome of a patient with severe brain injury depends largely
on having a collaborative and supportive family. This is the reason why the project strongly
work on the families by using the important and global element of sports to help them to
break free from the drama of the accident made up of fear, disorientation, anxiety, loneliness
and to become a real resource. Persons with acquired disabilities and their families will take
part in multidisciplinary sport activities, also together, during pilot actions. The use of sport in
group activities allows the exchange of experiences, the re-socialization, the overcoming of
boundaries beyond the limits, the strengthening of self-esteem, the enhancement of the
experience, the rediscovery of the residual abilities.
A common program of events and initiatives to raise awareness will be promoted, also with
the first "European Day of Awakenings". Through sport we can provide opportunities for
participation to people at risk of exclusion from the community following a dramatic break of
the life project (awakenings from "suspended lives") and to build networks of solidarity and
voluntary work around these people (awakening of community).