Sentara Home Rehabilitation therapies

Our physical therapists are dedicated to providing the care you need for your wellness and independence, such as:

• Evaluation of disabilities
• Gait assessment and training 
• Therapeutic exercises and muscle re-education
• Strengthening/endurance
• Safety with durable medical equipment
• Mobility/transfer training
• Balance/postural training
• Transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation
• Electrical stimulation
• Continuous passive motion (CPM) therapy

Our occupational therapists help you safely with activities of daily living in your home. Services provided are:

• Home environment assessment
• Wheelchair assessment
• Retraining in activities of daily living
• Adaptive equipment/splints
• Upper extremity muscle re-education
• Perceptual motor facilitation

Our Speech-Language Pathologists (SLPs) are experts at helping you regain communication, voice, and swallowing motor skills.

Services provided include:

• Receptive/expressive communication
• Articulation/fluency/voice training
• Cognitive functioning
• Dysphagia/oral motor facilitation

Some people may develop a swallowing disorder called dysphagia. Our speech-language pathologists use an active regimen of therapy to create or re-learn functional muscle use patterns necessary to initiate or re-establish effective swallowing. This may include the use of VitalStim® electrical stimulation.

Sentara offers FDA-approved VitalStim® therapy as part of its speech and swallowing rehabilitation services. Speech-language pathologists use the treatment to help patients with dysphagia, a condition that causes difficulty swallowing.

Research indicates that the combination of VitalStim® electrical stimulation and traditional treatment techniques is highly effective in restoring swallowing function. The specially trained and certified speech therapists at Sentara Home Health implement an active regimen of therapy to create or re-learn functional muscle use patterns necessary to initiate or re-establish effective swallowing.

How it works:

1. Specially designed electrodes deliver a small, carefully calibrated current.
2. The current stimulates motor nerves in the throat.
3. The muscles responsible for swallowing contract.
4. The quality of the swallowing function improves.
5. With repeated therapy, muscles are re-educated.

A physician’s referral for a swallow evaluation is required prior to VitalStim®. Swallow evaluation includes:

• Review of patient history
• Completed functional assessment of swallowing
• A modified barium study performed before starting electrical stimulation
• Develop a treatment plan, which may include VitalStim®

Our financial counselors will assist in determining covered services and filing the necessary paperwork with insurance providers. The sessions begin with electrodes placed on the skin at specific points on the patient’s throat, while VitalStim® certified speech pathologists perform feeding practices and other exercises. Small electrical currents stimulate the muscles responsible for swallowing.

 

Our home health nurses provide rehabilitative therapies for the following:

• Medication compliance
• Infection prevention
• Nutrition
• Coagulation therapy

Please note that not all programs are available in every location.