Page 35 - Healthcare News Mar/Apr 2022

BAY PATH UNIVERSITY...................................36 BEHAVIORAL HEALTH NETWORK (BHN) ........20 BFAIR ............................................................11 CHARLENE MANOR.......................................13 FLORENCE BANK.............................................9 GOLDEN YEARS .............................................18
GRT SPFLD SR. SERVICES (GSSS) ...................23 HOLYOKE COMMUNITY COLLEGE..................21 HOLYOKE MED CENTER (HMC) .....................19 HOME CARE HANDS .....................................19 JGS LIFECARE................................................11 MEYERS BROTHERS KALICKA (MBK) ...............5
MIRAVISTA ......................................................5 PLOTKIN COMMERCIAL R.E. SERVICES............7 RIVER VALLEY COUNSELING CENTER.............18 WESTERN MASS ELDER CARE (WMEC) ..........20 YMCA ............................................................12
MARCH/APRIL 2022 WWW.HEALTHCARENEWS.COM 35
Brain
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president of the New Way Services Division at MHA. “While some folks are likely to spend the rest of their days there, we also have many people who gradually need fewer services and they are able to return to their families.”
Each person has an individualized treatment plan, most of which include regular visits from occupational, physical, and speech therapists. Nurses also visit each home to assist with such things as re-learning taking medication and other tasks. One of the homes is designed to be a transition step where instead of receiving highly intensive support the person is more on their own but still has a safety net.
“The goal is to bring people back to where they were or to a less-restricted setting,” Kyser said. “When possible, they can return to their family and still access outreach sup- ports.”
One of those supports is The Resource Center (TRC) run by MHA. Serving as a day service, Kyser explained that this is where people can work on an array of interesting activities to help with physical and mental rehab in ways that don’t feel like therapy.
“Instead of squeezing a tennis ball, they are doing art projects, engaged in writing, and one of our most popular activities working on wood projects,” Kyser said.
While these activities provide physical therapy, they also help people work on their social skills. Kyser said impulse control is often affected by a brain injury, so learning how to interact with the world again takes some practice.
When HCN visited, staff at TRC were preparing garden- ing kits in time for planting season.
“The idea is for these folks to learn about and actually plant their own gardens at their own homes,” Kyser said. “They will then harvest and incorporate the fresh fruits and veggies into their nutrition program to bring the whole thing full circle.”
Striving for Improvement
ServiceNet is also a provider of long-term rehabilita-
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Baystate Medical Center: $500,000 total budget (over three years); Social Determinant of Focus: Education
tive care. Through its Enrichment Center in Chicopee, ServiceNet runs the Strive Clinic to help those afflicted with brain injuries to continue to make progress in their recovery.
According to Ellen Warner, director of operations for ServiceNet’s Enrichment Center and Strive Clinic, the motivation for Strive became apparent after learning about people who were sitting at home with brain injuries who needed therapy.
“People with brain injuries need someone to encourage them to get up and move, otherwise they will just sit and do nothing,” said Warner.
Part of the recovery process also involves persuading people to try things when they don’t think they need to par- ticipate. Alyssa Bustamante, an occupational therapist with Strive, said that she and her colleagues try to make patients understand that recovery happens when all the therapies work together. Left to their own devices, patients will tend to only take part in their favorite activities.
“Everyone loves physical therapy, so they all want that,” said Bustamante, adding that one patient felt she didn’t need speech therapy because she just wanted to be able
to get dressed. “This person had trouble sequencing the steps to get dressed, which is cognitively based, and speech therapy helps with that,”
Keeping active is essential to prevent brain injury patients from reaching a plateau and backsliding in their recovery. At the beginning of the pandemic many brain- injury patients lost therapy sessions. By the time they were able to return, Warner said that many came in decondi- tioned and could not do as much as before.
“They still had the foundation of the therapy, but they had lost endurance,” Warner said.
The Strive Clinic has adopted the motto of “Never say Never” to encourage patients to always set new goals in rehabilitation. As an example of that spirit, Warner and Bustamante discussed the case of a gentleman named Bill (not his real name.)
Bill had suffered a stroke more than 10 years ago, and had a below-the-knee amputation. Though he had a pros- thetic device for his leg he wasn’t interested in leaving his wheelchair. Enrolled in the day program at the Enrichment
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Center, Bill would sit in the hallway outside of Warner’s office. When she would attempt to engage and ask, ‘What would you like to do today?’ Bill’s response was, ‘Shut up and leave me alone.’
Bustamante and Lexi Stockwell, a physical therapist with Strive also began speaking with Bill and gradually con- vinced him he was capable of more than just sitting in his wheelchair.
“At first, with help from others Bill could take about five or six steps on the parallel bars,” Stockwell said. “Now he can pull himself out of his wheelchair, grab the walker on his own and walk 50 feet. That’s big progress in a year.”
Bustamante said Bill has also developed better coping strategies and he speaks in more positive terms. “He’s find- ing the joy in himself and spreading it.”
Warner added, “Bill now refers to himself as the mayor of the Enrichment Center and he’s become an advocate for our program.”
Bill’s story is an example of how it’s never too late to make progress with a brain injury.
“Everyone needs to keep busy, especially people with brain injuries,” Warner said. “Just because someone says they don’t want help, we keep asking to see how we can get them moving and get them involved.”
Kyser spoke to a misperception that contends the first 90 days after diagnosing a brain injury is the real opportunity to make progress on a patient, but after six months that opportunity is gone.
“That’s baloney,” Kyser said noting that in the past, ser- vices didn’t exist after six months, so without engagement it was no surprise that the person was hitting a plateau.
The Bottom Line
Thanks to the efforts from agencies like Encompass, MHA and ServiceNet, brain injury patients are making progress every day re-gaining the use of their muscles, many can walk again, and, most importantly, live with independence after their injuries.
“There’s so much that can be done as long as the person is engaged in their therapies,” Kyser said. “My hope is as we’re getting better at this, we will see even more progress.” v
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