Restorative Therapies

Physical Therapists (PTs) evaluate and treat people with health problems resulting from injury or disease. As experts in movement and function, PTs assess joint motion, muscle strength and endurance, function of heart and lungs, and performance of activities of daily living. PTs help patients with orthopedic problems such as low back pain, knee surgeries, broken bones or other injuries from falls, repetitive stress injuries, sports injuries or accidents, to reduce pain and regain function. PTs also assist patients recovering from stroke to relearn how to use their limbs in order to walk again. In addition to "hands-on" care, PTs educate patients regarding how to take care of themselves and how to perform exercises on their own.

Some of the conditions that physical therapists manage include:

• back and neck pain
• spinal and joint conditions, such as arthritis
• biomechanical problems and muscular control
• cerebral palsy and spina bifida
• heart and lung conditions, such as chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and atelectasis
• sport-related injuries
• headaches (cervicogenic and tension-type headache)
• stress incontinence
• neurological conditions, such as stroke and multiple sclerosi

Occupational Therapists (OTs) typically work with patients suffering from debilitating illnesses or disabilities, who need specialized assistance learning "skills for the job of living". In addition to dealing with an individual's physical well-being, OTs address psychological, social, and environmental factors that may impede independent functioning in all aspects of life. OTs help patients gain independence and self-reliance through exercises and adaptive equipment that strengthen and enhance their ability to function in daily activities. Occupational therapy may benefit a wide variety of patients, including those with limited functioning following a stroke or heart attack, arthritis, multiple sclerosis or other serious chronic conditions, birth injuries, learning problems or development disabilities, mental health or behavioral health problems including Alzheimer's, schizophrenia and post-traumatic stress, burns, spinal cord injuries or amputations, and vision or cognitive problems.

Occupational Therapy Services typically include:

• Customized treatment programs to improve one's ability to perform daily activities
• Comprehensive home and job site evaluations with adaptation recommendations
• Performance skills assessments and treatment
• Adaptive equipment recommendations and usage training
• Guidance to family members and caregivers

Speech Therapists (STs) treat all types of speech, language, and related disorders. They identify, assess, and treat speech and language problems including stuttering, voice problems, language delay that limits early learning in children, and swallowing disorders. Speaking comes so naturally for most of us that we take it for granted. For approximately one million people in the US suffering from aphasia, a language disorder inhibiting spoken communication that results from damage caused by a stroke, expressing any thought is a struggle. Working with stroke patients, STs perform language-based activities specially designed to promote communication within the brain in order to help it relearn how to access certain memories and functionality.

The practice of speech-language pathology involves:

• Providing prevention, screening, consultation, assessment and diagnosis, treatment, intervention, management, counseling, and follow-up services for disorders of:
  • speech (i.e., articulation, fluency, resonance, and voice including aeromechanical components of respiration);
  • language (i.e., phonology, morphology, syntax, semantics, and pragmatic/social aspects of communication) including comprehension and expression in oral, written, graphic, and manual modalities; language processing; preliteracy and language-based literacy skills, including phonological awareness;
  • swallowing or other upper aerodigestive functions such as infant feeding and aeromechanical events (evaluation of esophageal function is for the purpose of referral to medical professionals);
  • cognitive aspects of communication (e.g., attention, memory, problem solving, executive functions).
  • sensory awareness related to communication, swallowing, or other upper aerodigestive functions.

• Establishing augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) techniques and strategies including developing, selecting, and prescribing of such systems and devices (e.g., speech generating devices.)

• Providing services to individuals with hearing loss and their families/caregivers (e.g.,auditory training; speechreading; speech and language intervention secondary to hearing loss; visual inspection and listening checks of amplification devices for the purpose of troubleshooting, including verification of appropriate battery voltage).

• Screening hearing of individuals who can participate in conventional pure-tone air conduction methods, as well as screening for middle ear pathology through screening tympanometry for the purpose of referral of individuals for further evaluation and management.

• Using instrumentation (e.g., videofluoroscopy, EMG, nasendoscopy, stroboscopy, computer technology) to observe, collect data, and measure parameters of communication and swallowing, or other upper aerodigestive functions in accordance with the principles of evidence-based practice.

• Selecting, fitting, and establishing effective use of prosthetic/adaptive devices for communication, swallowing, or other upper aerodigestive functions (e.g., tracheoesophageal prostheses, speaking valves, electrolarynges). This does not include sensory devices used by individuals with hearing loss or other auditory perceptual deficits.

• Collaborating in the assessment of central auditory processing disorders and providing intervention where there is evidence of speech, language, and/or other cognitivecommunication disorders.

• Educating and counseling individuals, families, co-workers, educators, and other persons in the community regarding acceptance, adaptation, and decision making about communication, swallowing, or other upper aerodigestive concerns.

• Advocating for individuals through community awareness, education, and training programs to promote and facilitate access to full participation in communication, including the elimination of societal barriers.

• Collaborating with and providing referrals and information to audiologists, educators, and health professionals as individual needs dictate.

• Addressing behaviors (e.g., perseverative or disruptive actions) and environments (e.g., seating, positioning for swallowing safety or attention, communication opportunities) that affect communication, swallowing, or other upper aerodigestive functions.

• Providing services to modify or enhance communication performance (e.g., accent modification, transgendered voice, care and improvement of the professional voice, personal/ professional communication effectiveness).

• Recognizing the need to provide and appropriately accommodate diagnostic and treatment services to individuals from diverse cultural backgrounds and adjust treatment and assessment services accordingly.

 

Office Personnel With a dedicated staff familiar with the challenges of lifestyle management we are ready to help.

Agency Health Staff In our clinics you will receive care from on-site nurses, therapists and other allied health staff.

Nursing Staff Our Licensed Vocational and Registered Nurses maximize your doctor's performance.