Rehabilitation Therapy

Rehabilitation Therapy consists of multiple units, including Physical Therapy, Occupational Therapy, and Speech-Language Pathology.

Physical Therapy offers a variety of therapeutic strengthening, stretching, aerobic, and isometric exercises, designed to maximize recovery of function following an illness or injury. P.T. also offers many modalities for reduction of pain.

The treatment room is equipped with parallel bars, BAPS board, rocker board, trampoline, various weights, step boxes, finger ladder, traction table, and Theraband. The treatment modalities include cervical and pelvic traction, three ultrasound units, two electrical stim units, hot and cold packs, parrafin, over-the-door cervical traction, tilt table, walkers, crutches, canes, three whirlpools (one low-boy, 1 high-boy, and one foot), dynamometer, lower extremity pedometer, a mat table, a traction table, three treatment tables, and an exercise bike.

Physical Therapy inpatients' treatment diagnoses consist primarily of hip fractures, CVA, vestibular deficits, and debility due to multiple medical problems. The outpatients' diagnoses are generally orthopedic, such as lower back pain, cervical pain and radiculopathy, arthritis with various joint involvement, and sports injuries.

Occupational Therapy is a specialized healthcare service whose practitioners treat people who have physical, emotional, and developmental disabilities. Anyone whose ability to meet the needs of daily life has been temporarily or permanently impaired can be a candidate. Occupational Therapy practitioners are skilled problem solvers who are committed to finding ways to reduce the negative impacts of a disability, illness, or injury on everyday functioning.

As members of the healthcare team, we work closely with doctors, nurses, and other healthcare professionals. Our unique perspective makes OT a critically important part of a healthcare program and a cost-effective measure toward improving function. Occupational Therapists and Occupational Therapy Assistants help disabled people of all ages acquire or regain the skills they need to live independant, productive, and satisfying lives.

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

About Occupational Therapy Practitioners
Occupational Therapy Practitioners are skilled professionals whose education includes the study of human growth and development, with specific emphasis on the social, emotional, and physiological effects of illness and injury. The Occupational Therapist enters the field with a bachelors, masters, or doctoral degree. The Occupational Therapy Assistant earns an associate degree. Practitioners must complete supervised clinical internships in a variety of health care settings, and must pass a national examination. Most states also regulate Occupational Therapy practice.

Who Benefits from Occupational Therapy?
A wide variety of people can benefit from occupational therapy, including those with:

• work-related injuries, including lower back problems or repetitive stress injuries
• Hand, wrist, and elbow injuries
• Job/lifestyle changes
• limitations following a stroke or heart attack
• arthritis, multiple sclerosis, or other serious chronic conditions
• birth injuries, learning problems, or developmental disabilities
• mental health or behavioral problems, including Alzheimer's, schizophrenia, and post-traumatic stress
• problems with substance abuse or eating disorders
• burns, spinal cord injuries, or amputations
• broken bones or other ailment from falls, sports injuries, or accidents
• vision or cognitive problems that threaten their ability to drive

Occupational therapy services are delivered in a variety of settings, such as schools, rehabilitation centers, skilled nursing and assisted living facilities, mental health clinics, and at Barnesville Hospital.

For further information on Occupational Therapy, please visit the consumer information page of The American Occupational Therapy Association website or contact Barnesville Hospital's Occupational Therapy department at (740) 425-5110.

The goal of the profession of speech-language pathology and its members is provision of the highest quality treatment and other services consistent with the fundamental right of those served to participate in decisions that affect their lives. Sppech services are provided by the staff Speech-Language Pathologist (SLP). This professional must hold a minimum of a Master's degree, current state licensure, and the Certificate of Clinical Competence of the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association.

Speech-Language Pathologists serve a diverse range of clientele, of all ages. The most common diagnoses are: dysphagia, dysarthria, aphasia, cognitive deficit, and apraxia of speech. The practice of SLP includes:

1. Providing screening, identification, assessment, diagnosis, treatment, intervention, (ie, prevention, restoration, amelioration, compensation) and follow-up services for disorders of:
   1. Speech: articulation, fluency, and voice (including respiration, phonation, and resonance)
   2. Language: involving the parameters of phonology, morphology, syntax, semantics, and pragmatics; and including disorders of receptive and expressive communication in oral, written, graphic, and manual modalities
   3. Oral, pharyngeal, cervical, esophogeal, and related functions (e.g., dysphagia, including disorders of swallowing and oral function for feeding; orofacial myofunctional disorders)
   4. Cognitive aspects of communication (including communication disability and other functional disabilities associatied with cognitive impairment)
   5. Social aspects of communication (including challenging behavior, ineffective social skills, lack of communication opportunities)
2. Providing consultation and counseling, and making referrals when appropriate
3. Training and supporting family members and other communication partners of individuals with speech, voice, language, communication, and swallowing disabilities
4. Developing and establishing effective augmentative and alternative communication strategies, including selecting, prescribing, and dispensing of aids and devices, and training individuals, their families, and other communication partners in their use
5. Selecting, fitting, and establishing effective use of appropriate prosthetic/adaptive devices for speaking and swallowing (e.g., tracheoesophogeal valves, electrolarynges, speaking valves)
6. Using instrumental technology to diagnose and treat disorders of communication and swallowing (e.g., videoflouroscopy, auscultation)
7. Providing aural rehabilitation and related counseling services to individuals with hearing loss and to their families
8. Collaborating in the assessment of central auditory processing disorders in cases in which there is evidence of speech, language, and/or other cognitive-communication disorders; providing intervention for individuals with central auditory processing disorders
9. Conducting purestone air conduction hearing screening for the purpose of initial identification and/or referral of individuals with other communication disorders
10. Enhancing speech and language proficiency and communication effectiveness, including but not limited to, accent reduction, collaboration with teachers of English as a second language, and improvement of voice, performance, and singing
11. Training and supervising support personnel
12. Developing and Managing academic and clinical programs in communication sciences and disorders
13. Measuring outcomes of treatment and conducting continuous evaluation of the effectiveness of practices and programs to improve and maintain quality of service

Education materials and/or discussion is routinely provided to patients and family members concerning the following issues, including appropriate methods of managing the patient's particular condition:

1. Swallowing disorders
1. Safe swallowing precautions
1. Positioning issues
2. Size of bolus presented
3. Consistency of liquids
1. Preparation of proper consistency liquids
4. Compensatory strategies for safe swallowing
2. Information about patient's current swallowing ability
3. Description of normal swallowing function
2. Communication disorders
   Methods of increasing communication effectiveness for the patient with:
1. Expressive laguage deficits
2. Comprehension Deficits
3. Augmentative communication needs
4. Hearing Deficits
5. Speech disorders
6. Voice disorders

The Rehabilitation Department's hours of operation are Monday through Saturday, 8:00AM to 4:30PM, or as otherwise needed. The Department is located on the first floor of the hospital, outside the Critical Care Med/Surg Units.