SAF fitness and rehab programme reduces soldier injuries by 30%
Full-time national serviceman Rajesh Hareesh, 19, dislocated his shoulder in January, which normally meant he would have had to change to a less physically-demanding vocation.
Instead, under a new rehabilitation programme, the 2nd Battalion, Singapore Infantry Regiment soldier did supervised recovery exercises in his unit every day for three months.
The signaller Lance-Corporal resumed training after that and did not have to be re-deployed.
LCP Hareesh is one of the soldiers who have benefited from the Army's Rehabilitation @ Unit programme, which has been implemented in seven units so far.
The programme allows soldiers to do recovery exercises at their own units, instead of having to be referred to a specialist.
Previously, a soldier might take weeks to get a specialist appointment, so the new programme helps cut down the waiting time.
Together with doing preventive strengthening exercises, preliminary data shows that soldiers in these units now experience about 30 per cent fewer musculoskeletal injuries.
The programme's results were shared by head of the SAF Centre of Excellence for Soldier Performance, Senior Lieutenant-Colonel Yee Kok Meng on Tuesday.
A team of experts at the centre, which opened last December, work with commanders to advise them on key injury risk factors such as past injury and low physical fitness.
The programme has been implemented in units such as the 2nd, 3rd, 4th and 6th Battalions, of the Singapore Infantry Regiment, as well as in 1st Guards, since a trial in 2016.
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