What is neurological rehabilitation?
Neurological rehabilitation is a specialisation of Physiotherapy that aims to effectively manage complex neurological conditions.
What does it involve?
Rehabilitation is a process of education with the ultimate aim of assisting the impaired individual to cope with family, friends, work, and leisure as independently as possible. It is a process that centrally involves the impaired person in making plans and setting goals that are important and relevant to their own particular circumstances. In other words it is a process that is not done to the individual but a process that is done by the individual themselves, but with the guidance, support, and help of a wide range of professionals. Thus, a key factor that differentiates rehabilitation from much of neurology is that it is not a process that can be carried out by neurologists alone, but necessarily requires an active partnership with a whole range of health and social service professionals, including physiotherapists.
Physiotherapeutic neurological rehabilitation is an active and dynamic process through which an impaired person is helped to acquire knowledge and skills in order to maximise their physical and social functioning, typically through the education of specific exercises. This process can be conveniently broken down into three key areas:
- Approaches that reduce disability
- Approaches designed to acquire new skills and strategies, which will maximise activity
- Approaches that help to alter the environment, both physical and social, so that a given disability carries with it minimal consequent handicap.
In order to provide the best rehabilitative care possible, we at Wicklow Physiotherapy Clinic aim to maintain:
- An in-depth understanding of the neurological process.
- Our ability to identify appropriate treatment options.
- Our knowledge of associated medical management (drugs, surgery, procedures)
- Our ability to carry out a comprehensive physical examination.
- Our skills in the analysis of movement and postural control.
The variety and complexity of the neurological conditions managed through neurological rehabilitation are:
- Stroke, brain injury.
- Progressive neurological disorders Multiple Sclerosis.
- Neurodegenerative disorders including Parkinsons disease, Multisystem Atrophy, Progressive Supranuclear Palsy.
- Ataxias hereditary and cerebellar lesions.
- Neuropathies e.g. weakness in the limb e.g. drop foot, wrist drop due to nerve injury, diabetes.
- Genetic disorders Huntingtos chorea, ataxias.
- Facial paralysis.
- Gait and balance disorders