How is rehabilitation at CNS unique? Isn't the same therapy available at a closer clinic?

CNS provides what is called post-acute traumatic brain injury (TBI) rehabilitation. Post-acute TBI rehabilitation only really began about the time that CNS started (about 19 years ago). Initially, there was resistance to the post-acute rehabilitation concept. But as the effectiveness of post-acute rehabilitation began to be documented, doctors, insurance companies, families, and other professionals began to recognize the validity of this approach.

Thirty years ago, physicians and therapists were being educated to believe that once the brain was damaged that part of the brain was lost forever. During that time, the patient was patched-up, braced, wheelchaired, taught to use the "good parts", and sent home to unprepared families. If the family could not take care of the person, the next step was a nursing home or the streets. Many were sent to psychiatric hospitals for maintenance under physical restraints and inappropriate psychoactive medications. There was no "rehabilitation" for these brain injury survivors.

Approximately ten or twelve years ago, neuroscientists began to catch up with therapeutic outcomes. Science was finding that "sprouting" occurred in brain tissue following traumatic injury and that the process of re-establishing re-connections was greatly enhanced by early and intensively repetitive sequences of a skill levels in sensory-motor, perceptual, and cognitive functions. The translation of skill from a clinical setting to a "real-world" setting was a key factor. That is to say, as medical stability was established and the patient was able to tolerate rehabilitation beyond the acute medical setting, environmental validity (more naturalistic rehabilitation environment) became a major factor in the continuum of rehabilitation care toward the ultimate discharge placement.

Although "generalization of a skill" in a "valid environment" is becoming accepted, many treatment facilities do not have adequate experience in appropriate neurorehabilitation treatment protocols. Their lack of experience is manifested by misinterpretation, misdiagnoses, and inappropriate, ignored, or no therapy to address many subtle but influential deficit factors. The gathering and management of an experienced comprehensive neurorehabilitation treatment team requires master skill. It is imperative that this management and team also participate and remain abreast of, the research information, which is continuing to advance the growing knowledge of brain injury and treatment.

A good post-acute TBI rehabilitation program is simply not yet available in every neighborhood, or county or state.