For people with spinal cord injuries, the road to recovery can be long, arduous and difficult to navigate, but a first-of-its-kind facility in Regina is taking an aggressive approach to spinal cord rehabilitation.
The First Steps Wellness Centre opened its doors in 2010 as the only gym in the country to cater to people with spinal cord injuries. The gym has grown over the last few years and now works with over 30 clients.
“We try to work with people to increase their function below their level of injury as much as we can to increase their quality of life,” said facility director Owen Carlson.
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The program, based on the ‘Project Walk’ program pioneered in California, combines physiotherapy with a gym workout to improve muscle function
“When people are first injured they’re told they have a .5 to 1 per cent chance they might walk again,” Carlson said. “What we’re seeing and Project Walk is seeing a 10 to 12 per cent chance of walking.”
The First Steps program has been inspiring for people like Jessica Frotten who moved to Regina from Whitehorse just so she could take part. Frotten is now a member of the Saskatoon Cyclones wheelchair racing team.
“It’s awesome all these races, I was never very active before I got into this,” Frotten said.
Every client that comes to First Step has a different degree of injuries, damage and level of function. For Ivan Kozey, it was a serious car accident that changed his life.
“I was probably rock bottom, right on the bottom, why me,” Kozey said.
After some hard work at the First Steps program Kozey is able to walk again with the help of his trainers.
The cost of gym equipment at the facility is high, but sponsors are helping to lower the fees at the gym and First Steps staff hope they can gain government funding in order to keep helping people rehab their spinal cord injuries.
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