Improving Mobility : The Why & How

Why is maintaining and improving the function and mobility of residents in Long Term Care (LTC) so important? In today’s market, there are several driving factors, but quite simply, it is because improved mobility translates into health care cost savings.  Our latest application note reviews a study conducted in a LTC facility. It demonstrates that by safely enabling effective mobility training and ensuring that the associated exercise training is sufficiently intense, a facility can institute measureable improvement in resident mobility.  Such improvements can have a very positive effect on RAI MDS scores and on cost savings.

 

Evidence Based Therapy

Translating Evidence into Physical Therapy Practice: How Evidence-Based is your Facility?

Incorporating new evidence-based recommendations into current practice is a challenge facing rehabilitation professionals and long term care facility owners responsible for providing for the physical needs of their clients/residents. This note provides the evidence-base for a line of practical tools and movement enablers designed for today’s rehabilitation setting.

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Hand Training

Hand therapy is a vital area of physical and occupational therapy following central and/or peripheral neurological damage.

In fact, with the increased incidence of stroke survivors world-wide, there is a growing pressure to provide effective, evidence-based rehabilitation. As a result, optimizing recovery of hand function has been the focus of considerable research in recent years.

Balance and Training

The NeuroGym line of enabling equipment has removed many of the limitations previously faced by physical therapists wanting to provide safe, intensive and enjoyable balance training.

Maintaining static and dynamic balance is a complex process involving the integration of visual, somatosensory and vestibular inputs. It depends upon the integrity of key physical parameters such as adequate strength and range of motion at the ankles, knees and hips.

In addition, to be functional, the level of balance ability must be sufficient enough to adapt to changes in the environment and in the tasks or movement being performed.

Implementing a NeuroGym© Active Restorative Program in Eldercare

In recent years there has been a paradigm shift with regard to how we view the inevitability of physical decline with aging and in our expectations of recovery of function after stroke.

Neuroscience research has resulted in ample evidence of the plasticity of the human nervous system and physiologists continue to debunk the myths that significant muscle atrophy and the concomitant decline in motor ability are unavoidable.

As a result of this paradigm shift, long term care facilities and eldercare programs are responding to the growing demand from residents, their families and payers to improve restorative care and physical activation programs.

Clinical Application of Video Games in Neuro Rehab

Video Game Technology: From Recreational Activity to Clinical Tool

The use of computer, video and virtual reality games like the Nintendo Wii is increasingly popular in clinical settings. These activities have obvious motivational benefit and may help encourage movement and general balance practice. From a clinical perspective, though, there are serious limitations.

The patented NeuroGym Trainer, a multifaceted biofeedback device that uses input from EMG, pressure and/or position sensors to control the action of computer games has resolved these limitations. Now Physical Therapists have a powerful clinical tool that patients will be motivated to use with the frequency and intensity necessary for effective rehabilitation.

NeuroGym® Mobility Enablers: Enhancing the Nintendo Wii Experience

Many long term care homes, Seniors facilities and rehabilitation institutes are making use of new ‘virtual reality’ activities like the Nintendo Wii Sports.

Such computerized activities allow participants to engage in simulated sports activities such as bowling, golf, boxing or tennis by using a wireless handheld sensor that controls the player on the screen. This type of activity is increasingly used in both therapeutic recreation and restorative care programs as well as for physical therapy.

NeuroGym® Technologies Inc. produces a line of mobility training devices that can greatly enhance the Wii experience, increase the number of residents who can safely participate and provide alternative mobility activities for those who are not able to keep up to the speed required of the virtual reality games.

Functional Incontinence: Addressing the Causative Factors

NeuroGym Technologies equipment presents new opportunities for LTC facilities to address resident mobility and self-toileting challenges.

Resident incontinence represents a major challenge for the Long Term Care (LTC) industry. It negatively impacts the residents themselves on many levels and has a significant economic impact on the service provider both in terms of the support care required and direct expense costs.

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