Education and Brain Mechanics Play a Vital Role in TBI Rehab

NeuLife Rehab covers all facets of rehabilitation. Each individual admitted to NeuLife undergoes a comprehensive assessment with a Client Goal Plan meeting established for review by the Client, family members, nurse case manager and attorney, if applicable, at an initial Goal Plan conference scheduled less than one week following admission. Each Client Goal Plan includes clinical needs for rehabilitation and covers personal goals and preferences of the Client. Therapies are provided by NeuLife full-time staff who are Florida licensed and/or certified professionals. These professionals include but are not limited to:

• Board Certified Neurologist
• Board Certified Behavior Analyst
• Board Certified Physiatrist
• Neuropsychologist
• Psychologist
• Board Certified Psychiatrist
• Speech-Language Pathologist/Cognitive Therapist
• Physical Therapist
• Occupational Therapist
• Nurses
• Certified Rehab Counselor

The goal is for each Client to achieve a successful sustained outcome and, ultimately, independence to the fullest extent possible.

All NeuLife staff are devoted to their calling to helping individuals with catastrophic injuries in this highly specialized program. This is fully in keeping with NeuLife’s dedication to consistently provide the highest standard of care in the delivery of clinically relevant services.

There is another aspect to education beyond the excellence portrayed by NeuLife’s staff.  Education is a key factor in facilitating the potential return to independence from a traumatic or a mild brain injury (MBI). What we are referring to is an aspect of how the brain works, and specifically, the concept of neuroplasticity, sometimes called “brain plasticity.” These are broad terms that generally refer to changes in neural pathways resulting from various kinds of traumatic occurrences, including brain injuries.

One of the aspects of neuroplasticity is when an area of the brain normally associated with an activity, such as cognition, is damaged by a brain injury, the brain activity can move to another area of the brain. This is because the brain is not entirely “hard-wired” or static and, therefore, the rehabilitation of brain function can result from both normal brain processes and from the specialized neurorehabilitation that NeuLife provides. Neuroplasticity is, therefore, a factor in the rehabilitation of individuals from acquired brain injury (ABI), whether catastrophic or mild.

The idea of neuroplasticity is increasing in interest due to hopeful results with respect to positive outcomes in post-stroke rehabilitation. Specifically, neuroplasticity seems to play a role in “cortical reorganization.” In turn, cortical reorganization assists with constraint-induced movement therapy that helps to rehabilitate individuals who have had strokes with upper-extremity movement, treadmill training, bodyweight support and virtual reality training.

Also with respect to learning, a study several years ago yielded interesting results between the relationship of arts learning and cognition. There may be some parallels to be drawn between those findings and the rehabilitation of individuals who have sustained mild or catastrophic brain injuries. Salient findings include:

• An interest in performing arts leads to a high state of motivation that produces the sustained attention necessary to improve performance and the training of attention that leads to improvement in other domains of cognition.
• Specific links exist between high levels of music training and the ability to manipulate information in both working and long-term memory; these links extend beyond the domain of music training.
• Training in acting appears to lead to memory improvement through the learning of general skills for manipulating semantic information.
• Adult self-reported interest in aesthetics is related to a temperamental factor of openness, which in turn is influenced by dopamine-related genes.
• Learning to dance by effective observation is closely related to learning by physical practice, both in the level of achievement and also the neural substrates that support the organization of complex actions. Effective observational learning may transfer to other cognitive skills.

Proper and timely post-acute rehabilitation that may determine the difference between disability and independence is what NeuLife refers to as the “platinum post-acute period”  — the crucial window following acute care that is needed to nurture the whole person to health with specialized, clinically relevant services.

NeuLife’s philosophy is that healing, wellness and personal fulfillment are best achieved 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 achieve function and independence.

NeuLife, in Mount Dora, Florida, is an 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 and Diagnoses.

2725 Robie Avenue

Mount Dora, Florida 32757