Neurorehabilitation
When you choose our care team you will have access to a range of specialized treatments designed to improve your quality of life and function after a neurological injury or disease diagnosis. Our neurorehabilitation experts diagnose neurological diseases, provide clinical care, and train other therapists in neurorehabilitation.
Why choose us for neurorehabilitation?
BJC HealthCare works with WashU Medicine Physicians, BJC Medical Group, and providers across the region to deliver extraordinary care. Managing a neurological disease or recovering from a neurological injury can be challenging. Our neurorehabilitation team is here to provide team-based, effective treatments to improve your quality of life.
We offer:
- Specialized outpatient services: We tailor therapy plans to your unique needs and offer specialized outpatient programs. Our specialty clinics focus on management of specific neurological problems, including stroke, concussion, aphasia, spinal cord injuries, and more.
- Inpatient rehabilitation: Patients who experience a neurological injury start evidence-based therapy before they even leave the hospital. Our health system includes St. Louis’s leading provider of inpatient rehabilitation for brain injury, stroke, and other complex neurological conditions.
- Team-based care: You receive care from compassionate providers that include physical therapists, occupational therapists, speech therapists, physicians, nurses, dietitians, and pharmacists. These experts work together to create a personalized, comprehensive treatment plan.
- Wheelchair seating clinic: When needed, we offer multidisciplinary assessments for complex wheelchair needs. You have opportunities to connect with other patients and families in similar situations through peer counseling and support groups. These resources are a safe space to discuss challenges and develop coping strategies.
What is neurorehabilitation?
Neurological rehabilitation (rehab) helps people with diseases, injury, or disorders of the nervous system. It can often increase function, ease symptoms, and improve a person's well-being.
What conditions can benefit from neurological rehab?
Many health problems can impair the nervous system. Some of the conditions that neurological rehab may help with include:
- Vascular disorders, such as a stroke, bleeding in the brain, or transient ischemic attacks (TIAs)
- Infections, such as meningitis, encephalitis, polio, and brain abscesses
- Trauma, such as brain and spinal cord injury
- Structural or neuromuscular disorders, such as Bell's palsy, cervical spondylosis, carpal tunnel syndrome, brain or spinal cord tumors, peripheral neuropathy (such as Guillain-Barre syndrome and nerve pain), muscular dystrophy, and myasthenia gravis, among others
- Episodic disorders, such as headaches, seizures, and dizziness
- Degenerative disorders, such as Parkinson disease, multiple sclerosis, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), Alzheimer disease, and Huntington chorea
The neurological rehab team
Neurological rehab programs can be done in a hospital or on an outpatient basis. The neurological rehab team may include:
- Neurologist/neurosurgeon
- Orthopedist/orthopedic surgeon
- Physiatrist
- Internist
- Other specialty healthcare providers
- Rehab specialists
- Registered nurse
- Registered dietitian
- Physical therapist
- Respiratory therapist
- Occupational therapist
- Speech/language therapist
- Social worker
- Psychologist/Neuropsychologist/psychiatrist
- Recreational therapist
- Case manager
- Audiologist
- Chaplain
- Vocational counselor
The neurological rehab program
A neurological rehab program is designed to meet your individual needs, depending on your specific problem or disease. Active involvement of you and your family is vital to the success of the program.
The goal of neurological rehab is to help you return to the highest level of function and independence possible. At the same time, it looks to improve your overall quality of life—physically, emotionally, and socially.
To help reach these goals, the program may include:
- Help with activities of daily living, such as eating, dressing, bathing, using the bathroom, handwriting, cooking, and basic housekeeping
- Speech therapy to help with speaking, reading, writing, or swallowing
- Stress, anxiety, and depression management
- Bladder and bowel retraining
- Activities to improve movement, muscle control, walking, and balance
- Exercise programs to improve movement, prevent or decrease weakness caused by lack of use, manage muscle spasms and pain, and maintain range of motion
- Social and behavioral skills retraining
- Nutritional counseling
- Involvement in community support groups
- Activities to improve problems with concentration, attention, memory, and poor judgment
- Help with obtaining and using assistive devices that promote independence
- Education and counseling
- Safety and independence measures and home care needs
- Pain management
- Vocational counseling
Search for a neurorehabilitation specialist
Our highly trained team of specialists offers advanced treatments as well as compassionate, personalized care.
Common conditions for neurorehabilitation
Many neurological conditions can benefit from neurorehabilitation treatment. Our specialists care for patients with a variety of conditions, such as:
- Alzheimer's disease
- Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS)
- Brain tumors
- Cerebrovascular diseases
- Stroke
- Epilepsy
- Multiple sclerosis
- Headaches
- Huntington’s disease
- Neurological infectious diseases
- Nerve injuries
- Parkinson’s disease
- Spinal cord injuries
- Spinal tumors
Neurological specialty clinics
We provide a number of specialty clinics for specific neurological injuries and needs. Specialty clinics include the:
Aphasia Clinic
Aphasia is the loss of language or communication skills after a brain injury or disease. Depending on the location and extent of brain damage, patients may experience anything from trouble writing or speaking to complete speech loss. The Evidence-Based Aphasia Clinic (EBAC) is a specialty clinic for the evaluation and treatment of patients who experience aphasia after stroke or other neurological conditions.
The program uses language treatment techniques clinically proven to be effective. Care covers the treatment of verbal expression, comprehension, reading and writing. The clinic’s therapeutic team includes a behavioral neurologist, a clinical neuropsychologist and speech-language pathologists, among others.
Concussion Clinic
A variety of injuries can cause a mild to moderate concussion, including accident, sports injury or a fall. Different symptoms can occur following the injury, such as dizziness, fatigue, headaches or poor concentration.
Most symptoms improve over a short period of time, but others may persist for weeks to months. If symptoms persist, worsen or significantly interfere with your daily activities, therapy may be helpful.
Neuropsychology Clinic
A clinical neuropsychologist is a licensed psychologist with expertise in how behavior and skills are related to brain structures and systems. Through objective testing of memory and thinking skills, these specialists evaluate brain function and develop diagnosis and treatment plans.
A typical neuropsychological evaluation involves assessment of:
- Attention and concentration
- General intellect
- Higher-level thinking skills, such as reasoning and problem-solving
- Language
- Learning and memory
- Mood and personality
- Motor and sensory skills
- Visual-spatial skills
You may be referred to the Neuropsychology Clinic after a trauma, such as a brain injury or stroke. Test results can be used to:
- Determine capacity for everyday functions like driving, managing money or working productively
- Differentiate between illnesses
- Identify cognitive strengths and weaknesses
- Plan treatments
Spinal Cord Injury Clinic
A unique component of our Spinal Cord Injury Clinic is aggressive physical rehabilitation. This program is based on the concept that intense physical rehabilitation helps to speed up the return of significant function.
We offer activity-based rehabilitation which uses electrical stimulation together with specialized exercise equipment and biofeedback devices. You also have access to aquatic therapy. You’ll also receive training in high-level wheelchair mobility skills and ambulation with orthotic devices.