Why the Need of a Rehab Center for Seniors

Rehabilitation is an important process that has to be done with great care for seniors recovering from serious injuries or surgeries or any other medical procedures. Top rehabilitation centres for seniors, like Primary Medical Care Center located in Fort Fort Lauderdale, are basically care facilities designed to help the seniors become more independent while recovering from the serious incident that occured in their life. A state-of-the-art rehab facility for seniors will typically include a physical training centre, an occupational therapy centre and a set of doctors offering speech therapy to enable them to have more effective communication and eliminate any slurs in speech. Let us take a look at how each of these add value to the rehabilitation process of a senior.

1. Physical Therapy Centres

Physical Therapy Centres are for people who have experienced injuries or are experiencing any sort of pain or difficulty in movement of the body. Physical therapy improves motion of body parts, relieves pain, assists in recovery after surgery or invasive procedures of childbirth etc. Your favourite sportspersons too undergo physical therapy in case they encounter serious injuries during performance. Moreover, managing illnesses like arthritis where knee movement is key, heart diseases etc. becomes easier using techniques performed during physical therapy.

Some of the key therapies include:

  • Stretches of particular muscles at particular angles to infuse movement and growth and relieve pain. Such movements are also targeted at improving strength of the body part.
  • Temperature therapy which could be either hot or cold, both duly effective in relieving muscle spasms and pain
  • Training to provide assistance in learning how to use an artificial limb.
  • Balance and agility training
  • Use of mobility gadgets or devices such as wheelchairs etc.
  • Strengthening of cardiovascular muscles and most importantly
  • Pain management

2. Occupational Therapy

This therapy, through the use of daily activities, allows people to do more of what they want to do. Now these ‘occupations or daily activities cover a wide range of activities not necessarily related to your job like eating, dressing up or undressing, using the toilet, gardening, assistance while holding a spoon or a fork etc.

Usually occupational therapy is given to the following people:

  • Differently abled children who require assistance in performing everyday tasks such as picking up pen, dressing up for school, completing their schoolwork or participating in activities with other children
  • Adults who are experiencing mental health issues, who under the guidance of their therapists need to be directed towards carrying out certain activities such as involving themselves in a group activity, team sports etc.
  • Seniors who are either experiencing pain or mobility issues or need help with daily tasks of dressing up, walking around the park or just recreation purposes. These activities are designed to improve their social quotient so that they can have improved moods and in turn experience an improvement in the quality of their lives.

3. Speech Therapy

Speech therapists are also known as speech and language pathologists are specialist doctors who help in improving articulation, language skills, voice modulation, functions of the mouth such as chewing and swallowing in case people encounter difficulties in these functions after suffering from an injury or if they are born with speech defects. Certain brain conditions in old age such as dementia, stroke, brain cancer or Parkinson’s disease negatively affect the speech. It is not only beneficial to seniors but also to kids who may be born with speech defects such as a cleft palate or a lisp.

Common drills that speech therapists use to provide value to the practitioners could include:

Articulation Therapy: In this therapy patients focus on producing certain sounds with the help of a speech language pathologist.

Language Intervention Therapy: This technique helps with speech delays particularly when the speech has not returned after an injury or in case of kids if the speech is delayed.

Oral Motor Therapy: In this therapy an exercise regime is followed that helps in strengthening the muscles in and around the mouth.

These therapies typically form the rehabilitation centre for adults. In Fort Lauderdale especially, the rehabilitation centres are designed for individualised attention with state-of-the-art facilities for each of the therapies on offer. Even stubborn cases have a chance at full recovery in these centres.