How Neurorehabilitation Can Benefit Patients with Neurological Conditions
Unless it’s congenital or strongly hereditary, most people don’t expect to deal with a major neurological condition in their lifetime. Unfortunately, life and illness are unpredictable. Abrupt accidents resulting in traumatic spinal cord or brain injury, strokes, brain tumors and incurable diseases like multiple sclerosis (MS) or cancer can all happen without warning.
Such sudden onset often leaves patients depressed or listless. They may feel that their quality of life has suffered dramatically and mourn a loss of bodily control.
Neurorehabilitation is a multi-disciplinary solution meant to address these concerns. It presupposes that, with the proper care, patients can take back control of their life, regain hope and even see measurable health improvements. Read on to learn some of the benefits of neurorehabilitation.
Focus on Improving Overall Quality of Life
Neurological conditions are much more complicated than a broken bone or sprained ankle. They don’t simply limit the function of the human body – they also affect a person’s ability to communicate, inhibit free and independent movement, prevent access to certain locations, contribute to feelings of isolation and introduce the pressure of social stigma. A patient’s life will only see improvement if treatment addresses the full gamut of challenges they face: physical, mental and emotional. Neurorehabilitation takes all of these unique challenges into account.
Individualized, Patient-Centered Care
Any improvement in physical symptoms will ideally allow a patient to achieve their personal goals and move through their day-to-day life with increased ease.
Each neurological condition is also highly personal on a physiological level, affecting different parts of each patient’s body to varying degrees. There is no one-size-fits-all rehab for a neurological condition. Thus, it follows that neurorehabilitation treatments are appropriately adjusted according to the individual.
Incorporation of Many Disciplines
In order to provide comprehensive solutions to the challenges a patient may face, neurorehabilitation is necessarily an intersection between many medicinal disciplines and typically takes place in an acute rehabilitation hospital. Here is just a small sampling of the programs a patient may require:
- Exercises to improve mobility, balance and gait
- Pain management
- Training to improve memory and cognition
- Speech therapy
- Mental health counseling and emotional support
- Nutritional and vocational counseling
While this may seem overwhelming, this type of multi-focus plan actually benefits the patient. They will be working toward improvement in various areas of life with the help of the most qualified, specialized medical professionals.
Potential Savings
Besides improving quality of life, neurorehabilitation also has a real potential to save patients money. By obtaining the skills to stay independent and relying on family, friends and community for assistance, patients spend less time on costly medical services, equipment and hospital stays. It also reduces the stress on the healthcare system to work with patients throughout their journey, rather than respond to immediate crises and house patients who could otherwise live independently.
Better Health Outcomes
Research has shown that early intervention can slow the degeneration process and allow patients to live a more independent, productive life. While not every patient will be able to recover completely, or even at all, neurorehabilitation increases their chances to reverse the reversible and retain any functions they still possess for a longer period of time.
Striving to Improve Neurorehabilitation Efforts With Wearable Sensors
Limited mobility is a common symptom experienced by many people with neurological conditions. Patients may find themselves off-balance, dizzy, slower or unable to walk with their usual gait. The wearable sensors made by APDM can assist these patients as well as researchers and medical professionals by accurately tracking patient movement. Monitoring minimal detectable changes over time can provide insights that will improve scientific understanding of neurological conditions and help professionals formulate the best treatment plans personalized for their patients.
ADPM offers an innovative wearable technology that over 600 universities around the world are already using. Their portable, highly sensitive and accurate systems can track actionable outcomes for gait, balance, and full-body kinematics. You can even continuously record a patients’ movements in their day-to-day lives to track diurnal patterns. Contact us at 888-988-APDM for more information.
If you are a researcher or medical professional interested in neuroscience and rehabilitation, you may also wish to attend these upcoming events:
American Society of Neurorehabilitation (ASNR)
11/09/17 – 11/10/17
Location – Baltimore, MD
Society for Neuroscience
“Neuroscience 2017”
11/11/2017 – 11/15/2017
Location – Washington, DC
Academy of Pediatric Physical Therapy Annual Conference
11/17/2017 – 11/19/2017
Location – Cincinnati, OH
