Life Springs Parkland Hospital launched the life rehabilitation programme last Tuesday.
“The project planning started in 2017 but was stopped due to issues with the town council. Then we had further delays because of Covid-19. But tonight we are privileged to showcase our rehabilitation unit,” said Cora Muller, the hospital manager.
“We can now offer interdisciplinary rehabilitation right here at Parkland.”
The specialised healthcare service is dedicated to providing acute rehabilitative care to patients recovering from Covid-19 or severe medical illness, stroke, nerve-related injury or illness that has resulted in weakness or paralysis, head and traumatic brain injury, severe orthopaedic injury, amputation and or joint replacement and post-surgery for strengthening and stabilisation and spinal cord injuries.
“The team includes nurses, physiotherapists, a speech therapist, occupational therapists, dieticians, social workers and psychologists. It is a holistic approach to rehabilitation,” explained Melanie Niewoudt, the social worker.
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According to the World Health Organisation, rehabilitation is a process aimed at enabling people with disabilities to reach and maintain their optimal physical, sensory, intellectual, psychological and social functional levels.
Rehabilitation provides tools for people with disabilities to attain independence and self-determination.
“As an occupational therapist, I make use of functional activities to return people to their daily lives to make sure they are as independent as possible,” said Anika Shepherd, who is part of the team of professionals.
“Where patients struggle to recover to perform certain tasks, we help them to find new ways to work around the things they can no longer do.”
Speech therapist Stacey Kotze believes it takes a lot of patience from the professionals and patients to achieve the best results.
“It is challenging, especially working with adults because they are mostly aware of the abilities they have lost. Sometimes they feel like they are being treated like children. But we keep trying until they get better.”
The unit will be open to the public at the beginning of May.
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