The 3 Essential Factors Influencing Senior Rehabilitation Success

The thought of multiple hours of therapy per day feels daunting after an illness or injury. Though some facilities promise an earlier release from rehab with more intense therapy schedules, this accelerated offering doesn’t guarantee success. Three factors you probably haven’t considered make the difference.

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Time spent working on therapy exercises is a big part of achieving successful outcomes, but while it sounds simple enough to do the exercises therapists assign, seniors recovering from illness or injury often need support in three essential, and often overlooked, areas.

Restore Rehab’s Carmel Director of Rehabilitation Laura Jenkins, MA, CCP-SLP, explains how environment, meals, and cross-functional collaboration impacts patient success – and how Restore Rehab, the Restoracy’s new in-house rehabilitation offering, is bucking industry trends in favor of a goals-led and patient-focused approach.

 

Environment impacts outcomes.

Drab colors, harsh smells, and outdated decor often come to mind when we think about senior care facilities. On the heels of a hospital stay, this can negatively affect patients and make the hard work of therapy feel more difficult. 

“I believe the atmosphere has a large impact on participation and motivation in therapy,” shares Laura. She notes that the home-like atmosphere at the Restoracy and Restore Rehab provides a thoughtful layout with beautiful living areas (including a cozy fireplace), inviting dining areas, relaxing front and back porches, and an open-plan kitchen diffusing smells of home cooked meals throughout the day. 

Tom (name changed for privacy) recently graduated from rehabilitation at the Restoracy. Before transferring from another rehab facility, he hadn’t realized that he regularly drove by the Restoracy because “it just looks like houses.” 

With its small size relative to other facilities, the Restoracy’s team was able to move equipment and support Tom in doing the exercises he liked best even when he wasn’t able to make his way to the gym. This flexible approach and the therapy team’s recognition of what motivated Tom helped ensure his progress.

A welcoming and warm environment makes a difference for patients in another way, too. Long hallways and uninviting commons areas can feel impossible to navigate in large facilities, leaving patients isolated in their rooms. By being pleasant and comfortable for visitors and patients, and relying on a home-like floor plan, Restore Rehab nurtures social bonds that support and encourage everyone’s progress.

 

Food is more than nutrition.

Every facility provides balanced meals and accommodates specialized dietary needs for patients. Food is energy, and during recovery from illness or injury it’s importance increases. This is why the often unappetizing offerings at rehabilitation facilities can hinder a patient’s progress in therapy.

“Proper nutrition is key to therapy success! That’s why the open floor plan kitchen at the Restoracy is so important. Each home is filled with the smell of home-cooked meals and the residents are given many options to choose from,” Laura shares. The access to cooks and the relationships built between them and the residents is a stark contrast to traditional facilities where the dietary staff and kitchen are typically closed off from resident access. 

Tom shares that his meals at the previous rehabilitation facility often arrived cold, lacked variety, and looked unappealing. He’s not sure he ever ate the same meal twice in the three weeks he spent at the Restoracy and he appreciates the focus the dietary team placed on flavor and variety.

 

Working together for patient success.

In rehabilitation facilities, nursing staff often drop therapy patients off at a gym across the building with little interaction between nurses and therapists. In fact, there’s often little interaction even between therapy disciplines. These are missed opportunities for the care team, from CNAs to therapists, to share information and work together to support patients. 

In these settings therapy goals are focused on minutes of therapy performed rather than goals and outcomes – often leaving therapy teams overworked, maximizing therapy minutes and using personal time to complete the needed documentation. It’s an environment that not only misses those opportunities for collaboration, but also can lead to burnout for therapists.

Laura shares Restore Rehab is shifting the perspective from minutes of therapy to goals and outcomes. Focusing on cross-functional collaboration and co-treatment across therapy types better supports each patient. She says, “We are not limited in our ability to provide necessary treatment approaches to benefit the patient.” Something that’s not always an option in traditional settings.

That teamwork isn’t just for therapists across different disciplines, it extends to the nursing staff, CNAs, cooks, and administrative staff. “Ronnie would come in and say, ‘Good morning, [Tom],’ open the blinds and start the day. The uplifting, positive attitude when she came in helped you have a great day because she was so energetic and so caring…” shares Tom who described the nursing team as “absolutely phenomenal.”

 

Senior care reimagined at Restore Rehab and the Restoracy.

Re-imagining senior care is at the root of the Restoracy’s story. Knowing how the senior care industry often fails to care for seniors, the family-owned Restoracy brings a bright new chapter to all of its residents. From the home-like setting, to encouraging visitors with a flexible schedule, and engaging activities supporting community and fun for residents, the Restoracy and Restore Rehab offer premiere senior care.

 

Schedule a tour, bring your questions, and see the difference at the Restoracy and Restore rehab.

 

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