Therapy covers much more than physical rehabilitation

Donna Deidrich | posted May 26, 2010 |

When most people think of wellness, they think of its physical attributes, such as fitness and exercise.

But wellness covers much more than that. It also includes spiritual and emotional needs, as well as the way physical, emotional and spiritual elements blend into a therapeutic whole.

At Aegis, our EnerG programs are designed to impact health factors in a positive way, while also focusing on six dimensions of wellness: emotional; spiritual; social; intellectual; physical and occupational. We see wellness as a philosophy of prevention - not just treatment. As Aegis therapists, we work both to rehabilitate patients and empower them to make choices that will help them live wise and well.

For example, if a patient has suffered a stroke, our first steps would be to help him or her regain his or her motor skills and mobility. At the same time, we also want to help that patient reclaim all or part his or her social life, if possible. If he or she volunteered regularly at a local church before the stroke, then we feel it’s important to get him or her back to volunteering. Our goal is not only to get patients better physically, but to get them back to doing what they love to do.

One of the ways this is done – which many people may be unaware of – is to target intellectual and cognitive goals during rehabilitation. During the recovery process, an Aegis occupational therapist (OT) or speech language pathologist (SLP) evaluates a variety of activities related to language and cognitive function.

A specific program used by caregivers in the senior living setting is a process called “Brainstorms”. This program helps patients regain language and cognitive functionalities. During these exercises, caregivers and patients discuss news and current events, create arts and crafts, reminisce and more. Through these interactions, therapists are able to help a patient maintain high levels of communication and cognizance, which in turn builds awareness which may slow down disease progression.

While these are just a few examples of therapy’s “other side,” they do show how all the components of wellness come together during the healing process. And as a therapist, when you can step back and see that the work you’ve done has contributed to a patient’s whole life, it’s very rewarding. That’s why we went into this profession in the first place.

For more information, please visit the Services and Outcomes area of the Aegis Therapies website.