Abstract: Blesma has always attended to the families of its Members (the limbless veterans).
We appreciate the benefits of a holistic approach to support and the value of family cohesion. However, while attentive to obvious distress and always practical in approach, we have gathered little hard evidence on the deeper needs of the family as a whole and how our support might be more effective, especially in the longer term; Blesma is there for life not only while a case file is open. This is why we commissioned the Veterans and Families Institute at Anglia Ruskin University to undertake an extensive review of the literature to consider what research and evidence has been undertaken into the impacts of traumatic limb loss on the family. This review concludes that no one else in the UK has been deliberately accruing evidence either.