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Short-Term Rehab: What to Expect

If you or a loved one is hospitalized for a surgical procedure, injury or an acute illness, your medical team may recommend short-term rehab, or rehabilitation, before returning home. Rehab helps patients regain all or some of the movement or function they lost due to health issues or surgery, such as a hip replacement or recovering from a serious illness and experience deconditioning. 

The term “Short Term Rehab” or “Short Term Rehabilitation Services” can evoke images of post surgical gym equipment and repetitive movements designed to build strength and stamina at a time when that may be the last thing you feel like doing. Motivation may be low and envisioning a new or even better self may be hard to do. But the reality is – if you or your loved one will need help after surgery or is in need of improved fitness or speech therapy,  Short Term Rehab is exactly what you need!

When You are Ready for Discharge…

The transition from hospital to rehab is often done quickly. A discharge planner in the hospital (usually a nurse or social worker) will provide a list of appropriate rehab settings for your particular situation. Patients and families are then asked to choose which subacute or short term rehab facility they prefer. 

The question is – “How do you know which facility will be the best for you?” 

Look for a Culture of Wellness

Most competent rehab facilities will have access to quality rehab services. They include:

Physical Therapy (PT)

Physical Therapy is designed to help patients who have problems in moving, balance, walking and performing other physical activities. When there are specific, treatable reasons for a mobility issue, a physical therapist can help with adaptive techniques such as learning to use an artificial limb (prosthesis), or recommend and fit for shoe inserts, wheelchairs and other adaptive devices.

Occupational Therapy

Occupational Therapy (OT) is focused on helping patients gain independence with self care and other daily tasks such as getting dressed, tying shoes, using the telephone and other adaptive devices that aid in everyday practical functions.

Speech Therapy

Speech Therapy is centered on helping patients who have suffered brain injury, possibly because of stroke, accidental injury or other reason. Patients may also need to  relearn language skills. Expressive language, or spoken word comes to mind. But speech therapists also assist patients with written expression, word recognition and other basic forms of communication. 

Sometimes the mechanical reasons for language deficits also create problems with swallowing. Speech therapists can evaluate a patient’s ability to drink liquids and swallow food safely. Should assistance be required a therapist can devise a plan to help patients relearn to eat and swallow safely.

A truly exceptional rehab service will go beyond the basics to develop a culture of wellness where patients can enjoy meaningful personalized therapies. 

Chandler Hall Partners with HealthPRO Heritage

Chandler Hall has partnered with HealthPRO Heritageto deliver wellness programming that is dynamic, multidimensional and leverages a team approach to treat the whole patient – body, mind and spirit. 

Six Tenets of Health

Each patient’s care plan incorporates the six tenets of health that address the whole patient. Each tenet assists in the patient’s recovery whether it be from a joint replacement or recovery from a brain injury or other traumatic event.

These include:

  • Spiritual
  • Intellectual
  • Physical
  • Emotional
  • Social and
  • Vocational aspects of health

A full recovery comes from belief in yourself and your care team, an understanding of the disorder and treatment plan, an accurate evaluation of a patient’s abilities and capabilities, a supportive care team, a caring circle of friends and family and a highly trained and professional team of therapists.

Rehab isn’t just physical. It is also an emotional experience. Add to that an element of fear, uncertainty and anecdotal stories from friends and family and you find out quickly that it is imperative to trust your care team.

Providing the basic therapies should really just be the beginning of patient treatment. Treating the whole patient should be the goal.

Ask This One Question

When making the final decision about which rehab program is right for you or your loved one, ask yourself this one question: “Will this program really take the time to understand me and my goals?”.  

If you ask that question of anyone at Chandler Hall, the answer will be “Yes!”

Contact Patricia Curry today at 267-291-2300 to learn more about our Short Term Rehab program or click below and find out how we can get you on the pathway to wellness.

Click Here to Find out More, including
our CMS 5 star rating

Find out more about short-term rehab at Chandler Hall

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Navigating Life Care Planning

We make plans for many parts of our lives, from major decisions such as purchasing a home to training for a marathon. Yet, when it comes to planning for future healthcare needs, especially how we want to live if faced with a serious or life-limiting illness, we’re not nearly as inclined to create a plan and put our wishes in writing. For many people, even the idea of thinking about it, let alone talking about it, is uncomfortable. 

Advance care planning is not just about old age either. Although we all hope to live a good, long life, a medical crisis can leave you too ill or debilitated to make your own healthcare decisions at any age. 

Communicating your wishes about the kind of care you want or don’t want can make an enormous difference to healthcare providers, loved ones and the patient. When your wishes are clear, healthcare workers are much more likely to follow your wishes, especially in situations where you can’t speak for yourself. Advance care plans give health providers tools to create a plan of care that meets both treatment and quality-of-life goals, and family members can be confident knowing they are honoring their loved one’s wishes. Research also found that taking the steps to create a plan also improves patient quality of life and reduces anxiety.

What is advance care planning?

Many people may have heard of advance directives and living wills but are still not quite sure what doctors are talking about when they mention advance care planning. The National Institute on Aging defines it this way:  Advance care planning involves learning about the types of decisions that might need to be made, considering those decisions ahead of time, and then letting others know about your preferences, often by putting them into an advance directive. In other words, advance care planning refers to a whole process of reflection, learning, and discussion with others, as well as to the creation of an advance care directive. 

Start the conversation.

It’s human nature to want to avoid thinking and talking about dying, but it’s an important conversation. Here are a few ways to get started:

  • Choose a time and place where everyone involved feels safe and comfortable.
  • If it feels uncomfortable to talk about, it’s okay to acknowledge that. Sometimes a bit of humor can help take off the pressure.
  • If the other person refuses to talk or changes the subject, try saying “That’s okay, we don’t have to talk about it right now but it’s something I would like to talk about soon. I want to be sure I know your wishes so I can act on them when the time comes.”
  • It’s okay to express your emotions. It’s perfectly normal to feel sad. Talking about future care can be upsetting.
  • If you find the discussion overwhelming, it’s okay to continue the conversation at another time. Advance care planning is a process. It doesn’t need to happen all at once.
  • This is a conversation about you and the person you support, so encourage the person with dementia to be involved as much as they’re able.

Things to consider.

There are a lot of things to consider when making an advanced plan. These basic things are a good way to get started:

  • Understand current health conditions and how they are likely to progress. This means learning about a person’s chronic conditions, understanding how they might progress and worsen, and having a sense of what kinds of health crises and declines you might face in the future.
  • Reflect on values and preferences for future care. Many people find that talking to friends and family helps them think through their values, what type of care they’d want during a health crisis, or a possible end-of-life situation. It’s also very important to consider “Who do I want to have make medical decisions on my behalf, if I become too sick to decide for myself?

Commit to the plan in writing.

Having the conversation with loved ones and making a plan is great but don’t neglect to make sure it’s written.

  • Communicate preferences in writing and in conversation. Although the ideal is to complete a legal document such as an advance directive, any information put in writing (for instance, a dated letter to one’s family and primary care doctor) can be very helpful later on. 
  • Reassess preferences and plans periodically. People’s needs, wants and preferences often change over time, as their health situation and life situations evolve. So, it’s important to regularly revisit the advance care planning process. This is true even if an older person has lost the ability to make major medical decisions, as some care planning documents can be revised or completed by a surrogate decision-maker.

We offer a continuum of services to accommodate you or your loved one, whether your plan calls for skilled nursing, hospice or palliative care or memory care. We are available at 267-291-2300.