| Administrator's Report 6 |
 |
 |
 |
| Written by Bev Greer |
| Wednesday, 07 July 2010 00:00 |
|
And speaking of the Web Site........... In January of this year, we told you we visualize a "Virtual Stroke Center" where stroke survivors from all over the country and all over the world can participate on a "real time" basis. We can't say that we have achieved that as yet but I do want to introduce you to our first client from India.
Contact was made with us by the client's son telling us his father had had a stroke and asking for help in aiding with his rehabilitation. Working directly with our therapist Brenda "Bootsie" Crawford, symptoms, questions and issues were exchanged via email. Bootsie then asked that a video of the client walking be taken and put up on YouTube so she could see the Problems. Once she received those and a physician's release, Bootsie was able to put together an exercise program to help her on-line client.
They had some problems understanding exactly what Bootsie was asking them to do, so we filmed her doing the exercises and put them on YouTube for the client to see. We are excited to announce that our client and his son are going to visit us here in Palm Springs in late July and stay with us a couple of weeks to work with Bootsie in person.
More on the Web site......... For those of you who visit our web site, you probably have noticed that our Virtual Clinic is not yet up and running - well, we are hoping that will change soon. I had mentioned that we wanted to set up a program of real time interactive programming that would bring in remote stroke survivors and their families and integrate a demonstrably effective regime for small groups of clients at designated sites starting throughout the state and moving eventually to the county as a whole. As with our current program, the biggest issue is cost and how to get the support necessary to not only make this happen, but to support it going forward. Also, in line with our current program, we have been unable to generate interest in supporting this development which in the long term means additional physical locations as well as virtual locations. The issue comes down to the same problem we have here in Palm Springs: the services are neither billable nor reimbursable by county, state or federal departments. This is the case even though we are able to prove that we act as a significant saving to the cost of long term, chronic care to a high risk group. That said we are not ready to throw in the towel. We continue to be convinced that we can better serve the growing group of stroke survivors and their families with even a virtual clinic "lite", than to leave them with no services past the 90 days of rehab granted by MediCare. Our current plan is to open our virtual clinic and offer educational programs with help from the American Stroke Association; some programming from SRC that would be filmed and put up on the website on a weekly basis - this would be counseling groups, one rap session, yoga and/or light exercise, and perhaps one of our programs like cooking without a kitchen; therapeutic games; speech therapy using a Lingraphica app they have developed for IPods; and an interactive exercise department using email and YouTube to work directly with clients. Clients would enter and be evaluated, would need physician releases to work directly with us, and would have restrictions on where they could go on-line. We would hope to develop some networking chat groups for those who are able as well as for caregivers and families to share Contact me with your story at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it . Together we can make change. |
| Last Updated on Wednesday, 07 July 2010 09:52 |
