Winning Wheels Therapy and Rehabilitation Services primary goal is to restore each person served to the highest level of functioning possible. Gait and mobility training are provided, and passive and/or active assistive range of motion is provided by rehabilitation aides to prevent and/or reduce contractures in both upper and lower extremities.

To improve a patient's functional abilities during routine tasks, therapists provide instruction on adaptive methods and provide consultant services for orthopedic appliances, if appropriate.

Winning Wheels uses a variety of therapy equipment including parallel bars, pulleys, weights, mats, ambulatory, flexaciser, power trainer, second step walking assistance device and the IREX virtual reality exerciser.

Certified Nursing Assistants provide passive range of motion during daily care.

Winning Wheels provides individuals with the encouragement and direction needed to improve their functional abilities.

Physical Therapy

The Winning Wheels Physical Therapy Program uses specialized equipment combined with hands-on therapy by highly trained professionals to promote strength and restore functional independence in mobility.

Our on-site Physical Therapist evaluates the muscle tone, movement, balance, endurance, wheelchair mobility, sensation, strength, proprioception, posture, and gross motor control of all Winning Wheels residents. Gait and mobility training are provided, and passive and/or active range of motion is provided by rehabilitation aides to prevent and/or reduce contractures in both upper and lower extremities.

The rehabilitation staff plays a major role in the selection of proper equipment and spends a significant amount of time instructing patients and family members on techniques for ambulation, transferring, and bed mobility. To improve a patient's functional abilities during routine tasks, the Winning Wheels team provides instruction on adaptive methods and fabricate splints or other orthopedic appliances.

Standard equipment available for use in the Physical Therapy Annex include: low-boy whirlpool, parallel bars, pulleys, weights, shoulder wheel, mats, power trainer, therapeutic mat table, standing table, flexaciser, electrical modalities, IREX virtual reality system and ambulators to name a few. The physical therapy department is available to residents six days per week into the evening.

Participants in the Winning Wheels Brain Injury Comprehensive Integrated Inpatient Rehabilitation Program benefit from unique approaches utilized by our rehabilitation therapists which endorses the active participation and choice of the persons served.

Occupational Therapy

The Winning Wheels Occupational Therapy Program develops new skills and builds confidence in both group and one-on-one sessions. Our goal is to help each individual gain the level of independence based on goals set in the treatment plan.

Our on-site Occupational Therapist helps people regain, develop, and build skills that are important for independent functioning, health, and well-being. In addition to dealing with an individual's physical well-being, occupational therapy practitioners address psychological, social, and environmental factors that may impede independent functioning in all aspects of life. Rehabilitation empowers the individual to achieve satisfaction in productive activity and a personal fulfilling, socially meaningful, and functional interaction with the world:

Located in the Therapy Annex, the occupational therapy room has several different everyday settings to increase the residents' ability to better function in everyday life. We call this area "Independence Way". There is a complete kitchen, a washer/dryer, a bank arrangement, an Art setting, and a grocery store to name a few. Occupational Therapy groups offered to residents focus on higher level activities of daily living such as cooking, laundry and money management.

Winning Wheels uses activities that are meaningful to each resident as his or her therapeutic tool. So one might find motor parts, fishing poles, garden tools and paint supplies for example, in the therapy room.

Speech & Language Therapy

The Winning Wheels Speech and Language Therapy Program restores each patient to their highest possible level of independence in the areas of expressive and receptive language.

The general areas that are specifically evaluated by our on-site licensed Speech-Language Pathologist are: speech, language, cognition, fluency, and voice. The therapist utilizes standardized measures of testing as well as non-standardized methods. The comprehensive testing results along with the resident's past experiences, present conditions, and personal goals for the future are utilized to determine the most appropriate objectives to target throughout the course of therapy. Therapy services are provided in both one-on-one and small group settings.

A second goal of this department is to ensure that the residents are safe for daily oral intake of adequate nutrition on the least restrictive diet. Therapists assist in feeding throughout the week at mealtime and monitor all residents to determine if any residents are having difficulties swallowing or have improved in the functioning and may tolerate a diet upgrade.

To keep therapy fun and hands-on, the Occupational Therapist and Speech and Language Therapist co-treat by conducting groups for increased independence such as: cooking, laundry, money management, and grocery shopping. These groups are conducted twice a week in Independence Way. The members of these groups focus their efforts in helping others either at Winning Wheels or in the community. The resident members are recently famous for their fund-raiser breakfast in which they will donate the proceeds to the local food pantry.

Recreational Therapy

Winning Wheels utilizes recreation services to improve or maintain physical, mental, emotional and/or social functioning to assist patients in expressing independent lifestyles. Comprehensive recreational therapy services involve a continuum of care, including:

• Leisure education and leisure counseling to acquire skills, knowledge and attitudes that facilitate community integration and vocational competence.
• Recreation that uses activities to enhance health, growth, and development through intrinsically rewarding leisure behavior.

This integrated approach uses the needs, interests, desires and abilities of the participants to give direction to the recreational therapy services provided. A diversity of creative, psychosocial, religious, physical, intellectual and community-based recreational programs are provided seven days per week, including evenings, to meet, as comprehensively as possible, the wide variety of rehabilitation needs of Winning Wheels' clientele.

The primary goals of the Recreational Therapy Program at Winning Wheels are to enhance the quality of life for neurologically impaired individuals by:

• Assisting them in learning new skills and modifying old ones to compensate for abilities they have lost.
• Encouraging them to practice self-care skills.
• Involving them in community recreation programs.
• Enabling them to feel a sense of self-worth and accomplishment through participation in a satisfying and rewarding lifestyle.

Pastoral Care Services provided at Winning Wheels represents a variety of religious denominations. The local ministerial association, in addition to other area spiritual leaders, provide several in-house worship services weekly. Transportation is also provided which enables patients to attend the services of their choice. Pastoral care services are available to all patients at Winning Wheels, regardless of faith or religious beliefs.

Certified Therapeutic Recreation Specialists team with other treatment professionals to promote the rehabilitation process and to implement recommended treatment modalities.

Winning Wheels offers many unique opportunities for our residents to get out and be active. Check out what they like to call Adventures in Therapy.