Page 52 - winterspring2021

52 RESOURCES RESOURCES WESTCOAST FLORIDA
Life after Rehab and Home Health:
Life after Rehab and Home Health:
Encouraging Safe and
Encouraging Safe and

Active Aging
Active Aging

“If you don’t make time for your wellness, you

will be forced to make time for your illness.”

So, you have finished a round of cise program Patients who fail to adhere to
rehabilitation or home health therapy after a the prescribed exercise program may extend
the duration of their treatment and make
unexpected illness. Life was good until you treatment less effective. A number of studies
ended up in the hospital with pneumonia, a have also linked strong exercise adherence
urinary tract infection, an unexpected sur- to improved treatment outcome in patients
gery, a scheduled surgery or even COV- experiencing neck and back pain and
ID-19. You thought that you were doing well osteoarthritis symptoms.
enough to manage the rest of your life with-
out any health complications yet here you Clients’ perceived barriers is one of the most
are- entertaining Physical, Occupational and widely documented barriers to adherence,
/ or Speech language pathologists into your with examples such as forgetting to exercise,
home in order to teach you exercises and not having the time, not fitting into the daily
help you recover in order to return to your routine as well as time, work schedules and
prior level of function. You are discharged transportation. What we may not realize is
from their services with a home exercise that the chances of falling or falling with a
program and off you go. Sounds pretty easy, catastrophic injury in the aging population
right? Follow what they tell you and every- increase if we don’t focus on maintaining or
thing will be fine. But beingconsistent, safe increasing muscle fitness or cardio endur-
and compliant with a home exercise program ance. Our priorities must change as we age;
is not as easy as it sounds. You may not be how many times have we heard, “when
getting the results you wished to achieve at 1 we’re young, we work out to look good; now
or 2 visits per week.
we work out to survive”?
Currently, one of the main problems we
encounter is poor adherence to an established So how do we stick to the program? We need
exercise program. Adherence to home to first realize that clients may have cogni-
exercise programs after rehabilitation is tive, behavioral and/or practical barriers that
a significant problem, with estimates of can have an effect on a client’s willingness
non-adherence as high as 50% . Those to adhere to the set-up program as well as
who perform their exercises to the required realizing the physical consequences of not
repetitions may not be deemed adherent if following through with it in the long-term.
their technique is poor, as clients will not be Currently, clients need to realize that there
gaining maximum benefit from their exer- is lots of evidence that physical activity
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