Center for Life Skills Helps the Neurologically Impaired

You may have had a stroke or other brain injury. Medicare or your medical insurance has paid for a certain amount of rehabilitation therapy, but you feel you need more. What can you do?

Often, nothing. But a new, innovative IC program, housed on the second floor of Longview, hopes to change that for area residents. The Center for Life Skills brings together students and faculty from physical therapy, occupational therapy, speech-language pathology, and therapeutic recreation with the goal of enhancing the quality of life and improving the rehabilitative options for individuals in the community with chronic neurological disabilities. Patients benefit from the expertise that each profession brings to the client.

The program has the added benefit of enhancing the educational experiences of our students. It gives them the chance to work as part of an interdisciplinary team and to practice their skills while really helping people in the community. They also participate in clinical research, laboratory demonstrations, and class projects. Along with their supervisors, they assess the clients and work with them to improve their communication, problem solving, and functioning skills.

"This is a fantastic opportunity," says Catherine Gooch, manager of the Center for Life Skills, "for Ithaca College to serve its neighbors in a highly visible, creative, and therapeutic program. The participants in the center are patients who have completed their formal rehabilitation therapy but deem it necessary to continue to improve their functioning level. Up to 15 participants may enroll per 15-week session. In the program they practice life skills in a supervised environment as well as in the community. The responsibilities of the students include running both group and individual sessions, reporting at team conferences, interacting with families, and documenting client progress toward the goals they've established together.

Gooch is new to the Ithaca College staff. She holds a bachelor of science degree in therapeutic recreation and is a certified therapeutic recreation specialist. She has more than a decade of clinical and supervisory experience at Georgetown University Hospital, the University of Maryland Medical Center, and two private agencies. She is glad to be helping this innovative program. "For those who have experienced a traumatizing medical event such as a stroke," she says, "this program can increase independence as well as communication and socialization skills. It can help them relearn to function comfortably and with confidence."

It also gives Ithaca College the opportunity to help its neighbors-and gives our students hands-on training with real clients, to boot.

Photo by George Sapio