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Building confidence and learning new skills – how vocational work supports rehab
“Being at Workbridge gives the person a sense of purpose. It provides them with an aim to achieve. They can stand back and be proud of what they’ve done,” says Tom, a service user accessing Workbridge at St Andrew’s.
Based within the St Andrew’s Northampton hospital site, and integrating public facing retail offerings, Workbridge provides a vocational pathway for people living with brain injuries, mental illness, learning disabilities or autism. The centre operates to provide training and social opportunities for people living in the community and within the inpatient setting of St Andrew’s and here people can learn new skills through the array of activities on offer, supported by vocational skills instructors.
Let’s talk about LT (Locomotor Training)
Many individuals living with spinal cord injury, regardless of time elapsed since their injury or their age, experience improvements with posture, walking, health and well-being after receiving Locomotor Training. So, what is it?
Locomotor Training is a rehabilitation intervention that is driven by the main goal of recovering function. It is based on our current knowledge of how the brain and spinal cord control stepping and how the nervous system learns motor skills. Ultimately, we are training people living with paralysis to stand, step and walk again. The benefits from this restorative approach reach far beyond its ultimate goal. Cardiovascular and pulmonary function, increased bone density, reduced spasticity, decreased skin lesions and greater ability to tolerate glucose are a few of the life-enhancing outcomes often attributed to this intervention.
A guide to living with dysphagia
Being diagnosed with dysphagia (also referred to as swallowing difficulties) can be an overwhelming feeling. From diagnosis to understanding which foods are safe to eat, here Wiltshire Farm Foods shares tips and advice on living with the condition.
Being Diagnosed with Dysphagia Once you are diagnosed with dysphagia, your Speech and Language Therapist may recommend that you amend your diet. This will involve modifying the textures of the food you consume, making it easier and safer for you to swallow.
The Continuum of Rehabilitation for Children with SCI
With new advances in neurorestorative therapies becoming available in the UK, community-based rehabilitation for children living with spinal injuries has a bright future ahead.
Though they are only a small percentage of the overall number of people living with spinal cord injuries, children most urgently need access to ongoing specialist rehabilitation programmes within their communities. This is because, in addition to the secondary complications suffered by people of any age with SCI, children’s bodies are still growing and are therefore susceptible to a myriad additional health and growth problems when paralysed at a young age. On the bright side, children’s brains and neuromusculoskeletal systems are actively developing, and thus hold great potential for improvement through regular access to specialised rehabilitation programmes.
What is Activity Based Rehabilitation?
Neurokinex specialises in Activity Based Rehabilitation and our approach is one that attracts a great deal of interest and intrigue. Firstly people ask ‘what is Activity Based Rehabilitation?’
You could describe it as the best recovery opportunity for people with a spinal cord injury which redefines possibility and defies convention. But, more accurately, Activity Based Rehabilitation (ABR) is a form of neurological rehabilitation devised to encourage functional recovery following spinal cord injury by utilising multiple strategies to encourage neuroplasticity within the nervous system. Also known as Activity Based Therapy and commonly shortened to ABR or ABT, it is gradually gaining in popularity around the world, both because of the positive outcomes it achieves and the high levels of engagement from its participants.
What are the IDDSI Levels and why do they matter?
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Dysphagia, more commonly known as swallowing difficulties, can be prevalent amongst those in neuro rehabilitation. For those in recovery, understanding how their swallowing has been affected, what solutions are available and which nutritional, delicious and above all, safe, meals they should be eating, is of paramount importance.
Those living with dysphagia can indulge in a festive feast this Christmas
Wiltshire Farm Foods has announced its first-ever range of Christmas meals, introducing a variety of festive favourites to its Softer Foods Collection that have been specially created for those living with swallowing difficulties.
The range includes an energy dense Puréed Turkey with Red Cabbage, Sage and Cranberry Stuffing and Duchess Potatoes, with over 500 Kcal and 20g protein; Puréed Honey Glazed Pork with Apple Sauce, Green Beans and Sauté Potatoes (a meal which is both energy dense and gluten free) and a Puréed Festive Pudding with Vanilla Sauce; packed with balanced notes of festive spices, which is also gluten free.
Wiltshire Farm Foods unveils a new Softer Foods range
Its Purée Petite range now features sausages which look freshly sizzled, chips and potatoes that are beautifully browned and grill steaks which appear lightly seared, all to enhance the aesthetics of its texture modified food selection. When it comes to first impressions, food presentation is of paramount importance to Wiltshire Farm Foods and creating dishes which allows its customers to dine with dignity, no matter their medical condition. Containing a similar calorie and protein content as Wiltshire Farm Foods’ Purée Classic dishes, its Purée Petite range provides a similar nutritional value for those with a smaller appetite.
