About Us

*The Healthy Aging RRTC officially closed at the end of September, 2018. This page remains as a historical record of the projects, research, and members of the RRTC, but it is no longer maintained. As such, information presented in this webpage may be out of date.

We are a Rehabilitation Research & Training Center (RRTC) funded by the National Institute on Disability, Independent Living, and Rehabilitation Research (NIDILRR). The focus of our RRTC is to promote healthy aging for people with long-term physical disabilities. Our Healthy Aging RRTC brings together a group of rehabilitation researchers, physicians, psychologists and public health professionals and who carry out research and training activities to better understand the challenges faced by people aging with muscular dystrophy (MD), multiple sclerosis (MS), post-polio syndrome (PPS), and spinal cord injury (SCI). 

Our Mission:

  1. To better understand what helps or hinders persons with physical disabilities access adequate health care and rehabilitation services.
  2. To better understand the impact of secondary conditions on the lives of people living and growing older with a long-term physical disability.
  3. To adapt and test health promotion programs to see if these programs are able to help people living with a long-term physical disability age well.  
  4. To develop and test new programs that help people tap into their resilience and coping abilities in the toughest periods of their life. 
  5. To train new researchers and health care providers in the field of aging and disability. 
  6. To share our findings with health care providers, advocates, policy-makers, persons living with a long-term physical disability and those who care about them.
  7. To answer questions and connect people to the resources they need. Have a question? Contact us.