Achieving Independence after a Catastrophic Injury Requires More than Physical Therapy: The Important Role of a Life Skills Technician

Because independence is the goal of physical rehabilitation, specialized rehabilitation, neurorehabilitation and all of the elements of a Client Goal Plan at NeuLife, a very important and special member of the team is the Life Skills Technician (LST).

Everyone at NeuLife recognizes that after a catastrophic injury, life is different. Not at an end, but a different life. Activities may have to be performed differently, including activities of daily living (ADLs). Moving, exercising, thinking and speaking may be different or harder. Coordination, memory, sequencing and making decisions may be harder. Many things may be different or harder, not only if you have had a brain injury, but if you have had a catastrophic injury of virtually any type that requires the type of post-acute rehabilitation expertise that NeuLife provides. You’ve been through a lot and have a lot on your mind. Your family has, also.

The reality is that there will be great days, good days, in-between days, not-so-good days, up days and down days. They may correlate with how you feel physically, medications, the friends you have made, how physical therapy, occupational therapy or speech therapy went that day, the skills that you have regained, those that you don’t feel you have yet mastered or how you see your future. With NeuLife’s supportive post-acute rehabilitation, you will adjust and might find that the great and good days will far out number the others.

One of the ways by which to tie all of these emotional and physical realities together and that NeuLife provides as part of its innovative post-acute rehabilitation, is the involvement of an LST. He or she is an integral part of the team of professionals devoted to our clients, their advance toward independence and to their family members.

An LST might be thought of as an amalgam of all of the post-acute rehabilitation professionals that evaluate, rehabilitate and continually assess NeuLife clients with the goal of achieving successful sustained outcomes. While all of the professionals at NeuLife — the neurologists, the neuropsychologists, the nurse case managers, the occupational therapists, the speech therapists, the physical therapists, the RNs and the NeuLife professionals in all other areas of expertise — play vital roles in the rehabilitation of all of our clients, the LST might be said to “put it all together.” By that, we mean that after an independent functional evaluation of each client has been completed, the client’s customized Client Goal Plan has been developed and implemented, the LST goes to work.

The post-acute rehabilitation Client Goal Plan with which NeuLife and your LST works can stem from any or all of the following occurrences, or others:

• Traumatic brain injuries accompanied by behavioral dysfunction or cognitive dysfunction
• Mild brain injuries
• Motor vehicle accidents
• Multiple trauma resulting from a range of causes
• Limb amputations
• Spinal cord injuries
• Neurological dysfunction

When we talk about achieving independence as the main goal of NeuLife’s specialized rehabilitation, the LST is one of the prime players that makes it all happen. He or she helps to modify elements of a life that has changed. He or she does this by, for example, helping our client and his or her family to develop compensatory strategies in both the physical and cognitive realms. Sort of what like therapists in other modalities do (think: occupational and speech therapy). But by taking a bird’s-eye view, the LST can integrate the individual therapies into a more unified whole that prepares the client for the ultimate goal of independence to the greatest degree possible.

Regardless of whether our client has experienced a traumatic brain injury, a traumatic limb amputation, a spinal cord injury or some other kind of catastrophic injury, the LST will work with him or her, his or her family and with other professionals to advance the client along a continuum of care toward independence to the extent that physical and cognitive allows. An LST will incorporate and teach, on a level very personalized to our client, skills relevant to social integration, self-perception, interpersonal relationships and independent living.

NeuLife’s philosophy is that healing, wellness and personal fulfillment are best accomplished in a positive and uplifting therapeutic environment where caring staff encourages, assists and supports each client so he or she may achieve specific goals. NeuLife believes personal fulfillment is equally as important as goals to increase function and independence. NeuLife seeks to achieve maximized, sustained outcomes that exceed the expectations of all persons served.

NeuLife, in Mount Dora, Florida, is a fully accessible residential post-acute program providing specialized rehabilitation to individuals diagnosed with traumatic brain injury (TBI), spinal cord injury (SCI), traumatic amputations and other catastrophic injuries.

2725 Robie Avenue
Mount Dora, Florida 32757