26 Apr 2020 Team-based therapy: ‘I am so blessed to be here’

by Taryn Brown

Alan Stannard knows hard work and a willing attitude go a long way. In December 2018, Stannard suffered from a stroke that damaged the right side of his brain, leaving the left side of his body unable to function properly. He completed a round of therapy that left him completely dependent on a caregiver to help him walk. 

After seeing Unity Health Director of Rehabilitation Services C.W. Siler, PT, on a news segment, Stannard and his home health nurse asked his providers to refer him to the Unity Health Acute Inpatient Rehabilitation Center in Searcy, almost a year after his stroke.

“I am so blessed to be here,” Stannard said. “The staff here are caring and they work well as a team. I only wish I could have come here earlier.”

Last year, Unity Health became the first facility in the state to have the SafeGait 360 and the G-EO system. Both the G-EO and the SafeGait help reduce patients’ fear of falling and improve patient recovery and safety with the ability to walk. These machines provide increased safety for both the patient and clinician, while allowing the therapists to provide a more intense approach to therapy; patients are able to start therapy sooner and generally have an earlier discharge at a higher functional level.  

Physical Therapist Melanie Adams, Occupational Therapist Marla Mason and Speech Language Pathologist Cheryl Reaves made up Stannard’s primary therapy team. Siler said the Inpatient Rehab unit moved to team-based therapy a few years ago for therapists in order to provide greater treatment consistency and to help patients be more successful. With more than 65 years of collective experience, Stannard’s three therapists and Siler said they had never seen someone with such successful outcomes this long after the initial stroke. 

“He has such a good sense of humor,” Reaves said. 

“He is always smiling and works so hard,” Adams said. 

“He cracked a joke to me the first day he was here,” Mason said. 

“Patients have to want to make a change when they come here, and that is obvious in Mr. Stannard’s case,” Siler said. 

Adams, his physical therapist, helped Stannard use both the SafeGait 360 and the G-EO system for weight-bearing activities to help strengthen his arms and legs and to improve his ability to walk. Mason, OT, assisted him in functional training activities such as getting in and out of a car and getting dressed. Reaves, SLP, worked with Stannard’s cognitive skills to aid in the sequencing and problem solving needed to learn to walk and better utilize the side of his body impacted by the stroke.

Before coming to Unity Health, Stannard could not walk. Now he is well on his way to walking with only occasional contact assistance. In order to succeed, therapists said patients must trust the therapists, want to make a change and try things they have not been able to do. All three of Stannard’s therapists said he embodies all of those things.  

Unity Health is the only hospital in the state to have both the SafeGait 360 and G-EO system available to aid in a patient’s rehab. At the Unity Health Acute Inpatient Rehabilitation Center, patients receive an individualized plan of care consisting of daily physical therapy, occupational therapy, speech language pathology and nursing and physician services. The intensity of service in this acute rehabilitation setting is high, with patients participating in a minimum of three hours of therapy per day for at least five of every seven days they are in the facility. The physician assesses and modifies each patient’s rehab plan daily to achieve maximum functional improvement. 

For more information about all of Unity Health’s rehabilitation services, please visit unity-health.org/services/rehabilitation/.