WATCH: An innovative rehab centre in Saskatchewan is making leaps and bounds when it comes to improving its clients’ mobility. Now staff at the centre are hoping to share the program’s success with a new facility in Vancouver. Steve Silva has the story.
EDIT: The original version of this article stated that First Steps Wellness Centre is a “Project Walk-certified facility.” First Steps Wellness Centre is not a Project Walk-certified facility. Global News regrets the error.
REGINA – A local rehabilitation centre specializing in spinal cord rehabilitation is expanding to Vancouver.
“One day the goal would be to see a First Steps Wellness Centre in every city across Canada,” said Owen Carlson, executive director of First Steps Wellness Centre.
The centre is exercised-based and uses intensive exercised therapy for people with spinal cord injuries.
“If something happens to you and you end up sitting in a chair, how would you ever regain movement if all you do is sit there? You will not regain movement, you can’t regain movement. That’s just common sense,” he said.
Carlson said nearly all clients coming to First Steps regain some level of function below their level of injury.
“We often see numbers coming through research that people with spinal cord injuries coming out of rehab will see a .5 to one per cent chance of walking again depending on their injury. Typically our clients have seen around the 10-12 per cent range,” he said.
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Natasha Urkow broke her neck and back following a car crash in 2008. She joined the centre earlier this year.
“Walking is the big picture,” she said of her training, which include pedalling a stationary bicycle.
Where the diagnosis may be treated as a dead end for others, wheelchair-dependent Urkow took it on as a challenge.
“I have had doctors, a specific doctor, tell me that I will never walk again and that any movement in my lower extremities is a spasm. They’re there to help you establish acceptance but I didn’t want to take no for an answer,” she said.
Some insurance companies cover the $80/hour program, but the non-profit relies greatly on donations to operate.
The Vancouver centre will open in December.
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