By Justin Cruz, OTA, The Hills Post Acute, Santa Ana, CA
At The Hills Post Acute, we work with a multitude of residents to help restore their functional ability and enhance their quality of life. We come across a variety of personalities that always manage to surprise us, keep us humble, and reaffirm our passion for therapy. As a multidisciplinary team, we believe that mutuality, consistent feedback, and collaboration between the residents and the Therapy team help create the most effective therapeutic interventions.
Today, we would like to put the spotlight on one of our long-time residents who took our well-intentioned efforts to heart: Mr. N. When Mr. N came to The Hills Post Acute near the beginning of 2017, he was a very different person compared to the man you see in the picture below. Mr. N experienced a debilitating illness that rendered him very weak, in pain, unable to move, and socially withdrawn. However, we did not give up on him, and we continued to bring the therapy to him, whether it was in his room or in the rehab gym, where we provided encouragement and motivation to him almost every day. Although Mr. N would try to wave us off, we continued with our efforts in providing therapy and educating him on why it was important.
As time passed, our relationship with Mr. N gradually grew, and he began to understand how important therapy was in improving his quality of life. Mr. N’s condition gradually improved as his strength increased, and he started to leave his room more often and become sociable with the other residents. He listened to our feedback and provided us with feedback of his own on what he wanted to focus on. Currently, Mr. N has begun to relearn toileting on his own and take his first steps with Therapy by his side. We continue to look forward to what he can achieve. To us at The Hills Post Acute, Mr. N is our success story.