The Benefits of Rehabbing an Injury at Home

Home is an ideal place to recover from an injury.  Often patients that sustain an injury are not aware that home is a viable location to receive high-quality rehabilitation services.

After sustaining an injury, patients often need professional services to guide them through the rehabilitation process. Physical and Occupational therapists provide skilled care to maximize strength, flexibility, balance, safety, and function all from the comfort of home.

Customized programs

Therapists perform detailed evaluations to assess the current abilities of a patient and then create a care plan to achieve goals important to the patient. Tasks are broken down into components to allow a patient to safely perform exercise at the appropriate intensity for their status. As the patient improves, the tasks increase in intensity and complexity, until the patient has resumed their typical activities.

Developing Strength

Therapists create exercise programs that focus on areas of weakness. By strengthening the weakest parts of the body, function and performance improves faster. Patients with weakness are vulnerable to injury and if the weakness is not addressed, then the injury potential remains. Home health therapists are trained to identify areas of weakness and create customized home exercise programs to expedite a return to function.

Building Balance

Balance is a product of 3 systems in the body: proprioceptive system, vestibular system, and visual system. When any of the three systems is impacted, then balance is decreased and a patient is more vulnerable to a fall. Therapists have tests that assess for balance and safety. Patients confined to home, often have significant safety issues with mobility, require assistive devices, and are at risk of hospitalization. Home therapy is ideally suited to help patients improve balance and safety through exercises, home modification, and assistive device recommendations.

Improving Function

Home rehabilitation focuses on restoring function for patients. The best part of home health rehabilitation is the individual attention provided in the environment they are in most, home. Therapists are able to practice skills in a patient’s own bathroom, kitchen, laundry room, bedroom, and outdoor spaces, making the improvements faster and specific to each patient’s needs. Improving a patient’s ability to safely perform essential self-care skills leads to improved independence and satisfaction.

Overall, home is an ideal place for patients with strength, balance and functional deficits that make leaving their homes challenging. VNA Health Group delivers skilled and compassionate nursing, therapy, dietician and social work care every day and are dedicated to providing high-quality healthcare to the place patients know by heart, home. 

Alex Briggs is a contributing writer for Premier Life In-Home Care.