Tuesday, January 14, 2014

Australia - first hand therapy aims to close gap

I would like to know how they will ENSURE hand therapy works. Send your doctor off on a quest to find out how they are doing that. If its good enough for Australia it should be good enough for the world. Ensure sounds like 100% recovery, hold them to that standard.
http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/breaking-news/aust-first-hand-therapy-aims-to-close-gap/story-fni0xqi4-1226801570570
IN an Australian first, Royal Melbourne Hospital has launched a rehab clinic providing dedicated support to ensure stroke victims regain use of their hands and arms.
The standard three-week rehabilitation course for public stroke patients is focused on getting them to walk out the door in the limited timeframe. That typically comes at the expense of hand therapy, which means menial tasks such as making a cup of tea, hugging a loved one or even doing up the buttons on a shirt often becomes an Everest-shaped hurdle.
But the rehab clinic, the Hand Hub, is now trying to bridge that divide.
The 750 patients expected to complete their rehab at the Hand Hub this year will use a series of specifically designed video games to restore the dexterity and strength in their hands.
Professor Fary Khan, the hospital's director of rehabilitation services, says the program is the first in Australia dedicated to hand and arm therapy.
"There's a limited timeframe we have to work with limited resources so the focus of course is to get patients to be able to turn in bed, to sit up, to walk.
"As a result we see people in the community years after a stroke who have been discharged with inadequate support and treatment and still have no movement in their arm," she said.
The Hand Hub was set up with a $220,000 state government grant, but more funding is needed if the hospital is to expand its program and have a widespread impact.
Prof Khan envisions a set-up that would allow one therapist to monitor up to 10 patients as they work through the program on their computer at home.
Sixty per cent of public patients are discharged after a stroke or brain injury with impaired hand function, Prof Khan said.
"They're just sitting there, totally dependent on their loved ones," she said.
"You can't measure those hours a carer puts in and it's not just the personal cost of that but the economic burden loss of employment that flows on from that.
"This is an attempt to address that gap in services."

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