Following a hospitalization, seniors are eager to return home and back to their normal. Rehabilitation services can help them get there faster (improving outcomes and preventing a return trip to the hospital), but sometimes concerns that rehab will be difficult or overwhelming, and misconceptions about rehab services create resistance to accepting rehab as the best step after a hospital stay.
When rehab is prescribed, seniors and their caregivers have many questions: Is this necessary? What will I need to do? How long will this take? Will it hurt? Will I need to move to a facility?
What is rehabilitation?
People of all ages access rehabilitation services every day. The goal of rehabilitation is simple: improved safety, independence, and quality of life. The rehabilitation process includes interventions to support a person’s ability to function and maintain or regain independence. These interventions include physical, occupational, speech, and mental health therapy.
While exercises and activities are an essential part of many types of rehabilitation therapies, learning how to modify activities and the living environment to support safety and independence is part of rehab, too.
Rehab services are offered in various settings. Depending on the needs of each individual, timing, and the therapies recommended, rehabilitation often starts during a hospital stay. Outside of the services provided in-patient at hospitals, rehab services include:
- Residential rehabilitation facilities
- Outpatient offices
- In-home services
Hospital in-patient rehab is often leveraged for the benefit of helping a patient more quickly regain strength or ability needed for safe discharge after illness or injury. For example, respiratory therapists support patients in preventing complications and speeding recovery (which reduces their stay at the hospital and therefore reduces the risk of hospital acquired infections, too). Respiratory therapy for hospitalized patients often includes a tool you may be familiar with and didn’t realize is a type of rehabilitation support: the incentive spirometer. This tool supports keeping lungs active and free of fluid after surgery or extended bed rest. It’s often used in hospitals and sent home with patients after discharge.
Residential rehabilitation facilities offer ongoing care post hospitalization and monitoring while providing physical, occupational, and speech therapy. If mental health therapy is needed and not provided on site, the patient care team can help coordinate the vital support. One great benefit of residential rehab facilities is the access to an environment designed to support recovery for people who need additional care but don’t need to be in the hospital for other health conditions. Professional staff assist patients with activities of daily living as they work to regain their abilities to manage these independently. Along with a living space designed for accessibility and safety, the therapy space, tools, and therapists needed are all in one convenient location.
For ongoing support and with patients living independently or with caregivers, outpatient therapy offices and in-home services provide access to needed interventions without making a move to a facility. Many people choose geographically convenient therapy locations (or when the option exists, in-home services). Although working with individual therapists as an outpatient also creates the opportunity to select therapists based on personal comfort and rapport.
What are the benefits of rehabilitation?
The benefits are numerous, and the earlier rehabilitation begins, the better. However, outcomes can improve even if rehab doesn’t start right away. Whether a loved one needs rehab because of illness, injury, or age-related declining function, rehab can support their goals for independence, safety, and quality of life. Because rehabilitation is highly personalized, each individual will have a different combination of therapies, activities within those therapies, and a unique timeline for graduation from rehab.
Examples of benefits include:
- Improved mobility
- Increased strength
- Reduced pain
- Better understanding of modifications for activities
- Education about tools and supports to use
- Modifications to home environment that support independence and safety
- Lower likelihood of complications, reinjury, and readmission
Rehabilitation services can be used as preventative therapy, too. In the US, falls are the leading cause of injury death for seniors. Physical and occupational therapy supports seniors at risk for falls by teaching safe transfer techniques, improving balance and muscle tone, and developing a plan for eliminating physical hazards in their homes.
Types of rehabilitation therapies available.
Rehabilitation services start with a personalized plan. Taking a holistic approach to evaluating the rehab needs of each individual means care teams and patients come together to share information about diagnosis, medications, and outcome goals. Even when one therapy type may be an obvious need, care teams may discover that multiple types of therapies will need to work in concert for the best outcomes.
Success in rehabilitation often includes pain management during rehab. At the Restoracy, rehabilitation pain management is overseen by a physiatrist (a speciality rehabilitation doctor) and a nurse practitioner to support comfort and rehab progress.
Physical therapy supports recovery and management of chronic conditions. It relies on trained professionals who guide the physical exercises, movement, massage, and other non-surgery or drug treatments as part of the individualized plan to improve outcomes.
Occupational therapists work with patients to help them improve their ability to do daily tasks such as getting dressed and taking medication. While they work on physical aspects of successfully managing activities of daily living, they provide support for patients to navigate the mental and social parts involved in these activities, too. Occupational therapy can also include working on cognitive and problem solving skills with crossword puzzles, brain teasers, logic puzzles, and sudoku.
Speech therapy seems self-defining, but it goes beyond helping someone regain or improve their ability to speak. This therapy also supports language comprehension, listening, fluency, and swallowing. The ability to swallow is crucial to eating safely, something highlighted by the fact that choking deaths among seniors are second only to fall-related injury deaths.
Often used to support patients with traumatic brain injury, Parkinson’s disease, after a stroke, or any illness or injury impacting speech or swallowing, speech therapy uses a variety of activities from exercises to strengthen oral muscles to tactics for conversations in social situations.
Redefining rehabilitation at the Restoracy.
Going beyond providing the setting and access to quality therapists, the Restoracy is writing a new chapter in “Senior Care, Reimagined” with the launch of our own rehabilitation services company Restore Rehab. Addressing the unique rehab needs of seniors – from regaining strength and mobility to urinary incontinence training – Restore provides the expertise, tools, and personalization to support the rehab goals of each patient.
The Restoracy focuses on outcomes and quality of services which inform our approach through the course of rehab. An essential part of our rehabilitation philosophy is prioritizing restorative programs to ensure patients maintain the gains they’ve made during therapy.
Success seniors experience with rehab relies in large part on their morale and willingness to participate. Providing a caring team, cozy setting, and engaging activities also supports motivation and fosters hope and joy for rehabilitation residents. Offering therapies at times that work for each of our residents ensures that their motivation and energy are high.
For seniors seeking rehabilitation services with a goal of returning to independent living, we offer a setting that combines the best of rehab therapies with the comforts of a home away from home. Likewise, our memory care and long-term care residents also have access to rehabilitation in each thoughtfully designed home.
Technology plays an essential role in our commitment to re-defining the rehabilitation experience. This includes access to state-of-the-art pain management tools like Dolphin Neurostim and Avazzia as well as VitalStim, a tool used to support patients with dysphagia (trouble swallowing).
Like each of our homes, residents of our rehabilitation home enjoy private rooms and delicious meals prepared in the on-site kitchen and served in the cozy dining area (or when the weather is lovely, outside on the patio). Seniors can spend time with their chef and give their input and ideas to the chef and dietician team carefully planning meals that balance dietary needs, preferences, and enjoyment.
Bring your rehabilitation questions and join us for a tour. We can’t wait to meet you.