On November 14, NeuroHope began a two-day seminar with the Neuro-developmental Treatment Association (NDTA) titled “Facilitating Transitional Movements Effectively” led by Monica Diamond, PT, MS, C/NDT. View the course brochure here: NDTA_SeminarBrochure_22S14MDIN
We were happy to host physical and occupational therapists from around the country through lectures, labs, and patient demonstrations. The goal: understanding and learning skills in using transitional activities to remediate the functional limitations of patients with neuromuscular system impairments, across the continuum of care.
Lessons focused on balance, postural control, transfer control and facilitating sit-to-stand techniques for people with neuromuscular impairments.
A special thank-you goes to Dr. Diamond, and all of the attendees that came to NeuroHope to learn new clinical skills!
We are thrilled to announce a three phase renovation at NeuroHope. Phase ONE is complete, which includes expansion into a 13,000 square foot space, a new cardio room for daily classes, and the arrival of adaptive strength equipment for the “Impact 100” Wellness Center!
Wellness Director, Bart Richwalski, gives a brief tour of the wellness center in the video below:
Our wellness center, made possible thanks to a $100,000 grant from Impact 100 of Greater Indianapolis, transforms part of our clinical space into a gym with fully pneumatic, wheelchair accessible strength equipment. This is a key part of our revamped wellness program that is tailored for people living with paralysis.
The wellness program at NeuroHope is separate from the physical therapy, occupational therapy, and personal training sessions we provide. It features open gym access, supervised gym access, workout plans, and daily group cardio and strength classes. It’s all part of the comprehensive continuum of care that is the bedrock of our mission!
In the coming months, we will unveil phases 2 and 3 of our renovation plans, along with exciting developments, so STAY TUNED!
https://www.neurohopewellness.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/Impact-100-Wellness-Center.jpg455726Chris Leeuw/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/NeuroHope_Color.svgChris Leeuw2022-09-26 15:35:412022-09-26 15:35:41“Impact 100” Adaptive Fitness Center Opens!
NeuroHope is the Impact 100 of Greater Indianapolis “Changemaker of the Year”, and recipient of a $100,000 grant to purchase equipment for an adaptive fitness center!
Impact 100 is a charitable women’s giving circle that awards high impact grants to Indianapolis nonprofits in five specialized areas: Arts & Culture, Education, Environment, Family, and Health & Wellness. In a highly competitive selection process, one charity from each area emerges as a finalist eligible for a grand prize of $100,000.
We are honored to be selected the “Health & Wellness” finalist, and ultimately the “Changemaker of the Year” to fund the “Impact 100 Wellness Center”, which will open at NeuroHope in July 2022 and feature a full slate of strengthening equipment for “Open Gym” and “Supervised Gym” hours.
Recovery is about much more than skilled therapy. It is just as important for people with disabilities to have programs that maintain their health and long-term quality of life. Everyone needs to work out and stay healthy, especially people with limited mobility battling paralysis. One in four people with spinal cord injury are admitted to the hospital every year due to complications related to inactivity (skin breakdown, UTI, muscle contracture, cardiovascular health, etc.). Our wellness program, consisting of gym access and daily group classes, can now better complement individual therapy and self-pay sessions to form a true continuum of care for people along the road to recovery.
When the need for affordable, extended therapy for people recovering from paralysis is recognized, and the passion our team has for patients is rewarded – it shows how much our program matters.
A heartfelt thanks goes to Impact 100 and the supporters who make what we do possible.
https://www.neurohopewellness.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/Impact-100-Check.jpg458616Chris Leeuw/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/NeuroHope_Color.svgChris Leeuw2022-06-20 15:54:402022-09-26 15:43:58NeuroHope Wins “Impact 100” $100,000 Grant
Team NeuroHope recently spent a three-day weekend training at Frazier Rehabilitation Institute in Louisville, Kentucky with the Christopher and Dana Reeve Foundation NeuroRecovery Network (NRN). As a proud member of the NRN, we sometimes use Neuromuscular Electrical Stimulation (NMES) at NeuroHope – many channels of electrodes placed over the skin to activate the muscular and the nervous system. NMES, as well as epidural stimulation (implanted on the spinal cord) and transcutaneous stimulation (electrodes over the nerve roots) are all part of research studies being performed at Frazier through the University of Louisville.
We are thankful to learn from some of the brightest minds in neuroresearch and to bring this therapy to Indianapolis so people recovering from spinal cord injuries have a chance at affordable, continued care!
https://www.neurohopewellness.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/NeuroHope-at-Frazier-Rehabilitation-Institute.jpg640588Chris Leeuw/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/NeuroHope_Color.svgChris Leeuw2021-11-21 12:19:272022-09-26 16:27:28NeuroHope Trains at Frazier Rehabilitation Institute
We are proud to announce that NeuroHope is the recipent of a new $150,000 grant from the Indiana Department of Health, by way of the Indiana Clinical and Translational Sciences Institute (CTSI) and the Spinal Cord and Brain Injury Research Fund!
Back in 2017, an expansion grant from CTSI and the Indiana Spinal Cord and Brain Injury Research Fund helped NeuroHope lay the foundation for an extended therapy and wellness gym in Indianapolis for patients to continue their recovery and improve their health after insurance expires. Now, we are honored to receive additional funding to help our program continue to grow.
Indianapolis is fortunate to have excellent rehabilitation hospitals for people recovering from catastrophic events. Unfortunately, due to the rising costs of healthcare, the time patients are able to spend in them is often limited to a matter of weeks of insurance covered therapy visits.
NeuroHope was created to fill this void in care. We believe the high cost of therapy should not prevent people from receiving the care they need during their life-changing recovery. Our model revolves around providing affordable rates for therapy and wellness programs. We raise funds through community partners, grants, and our army of supporters to offset the cost so patients have a longer-term continuum of care. We are thankful the state of Indiana continues to have confidence in our program and the hundreds of patients we have served!
This grant will be an important part of our model and we look forward to the coming year!
https://www.neurohopewellness.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/NHCTSI.jpg303797Chris Leeuw/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/NeuroHope_Color.svgChris Leeuw2021-10-11 17:24:522022-09-26 16:27:58NeuroHope Receives $150,000 State Grant
Over the course of a long career as a nurse, Jenny Rosebrock served many patients recovering from neurologic injuries, but she never imagined she would be on the receiving end of such care. That changed in March of 2020, when Jenny suffered a brainstem stroke causing left side paralysis. It would be the start of a long and grueling road to recovery.
Jenny spent three weeks at a local rehabilitation hospital before she was discharged home. With outpatient clinics closed last spring due to COVID-19, she was not able to begin outpatient therapy at the hospital until June. By the fall, Jenny had made significant gains. She had regained some movement, and could take her first steps with a hemi-walker.
Unfortunately, in October of 2020, just seven months after her stroke, it was determined that Jenny had “plateaued”. Her recovery was deemed complete and she was discharged from rehabilitation. It is a story that is familiar to so many patients battling the rehabilitation process. Neurologic injuries take months, sometimes years, to recover from. NeuroHope was created to help patients like Jenny maximize their recovery. Fortunately, her outpatient therapist recommended NeuroHope so she could continue her progress. (story continued below video)
Over the last four months, Jenny has been a regular in the NeuroHope gym. She has inspired everyone with her enthusiasm, and came up with the idea for our “Key West Challenge”, a therapy and workout challenge involving everyone at NeuroHope that tracks therapy and wellness “miles” on a virtual journey to Florida.
Most importantly, Jenny’s recovery continues! The video above captures the emotional moment when she left her walker behind and took her FIRST STEPS after her stroke.
“I am so grateful to NeuroHope,” Jenny says. “With an atmosphere of positivity and encouragement, and a great staff and facility, I have made progress and can use a walker without a leg brace now. My ‘stroke-aversary’ is in March. As I reflect on the past year, I am thankful for family, friends, my therapists, and for NeuroHope!”
When Christopher Reeve became paralyzed 25 years ago, spinal cord injury was launched into the public eye. Paralysis can happen to anyone anywhere. There are 18,000 new injuries in the United States every year. It is a community no one expects to join. When we become a part of it – the fear, suffering, pain, & emotional despair is more than we think possible to bear. But, we also discover strength, the capacity to overcome mental and physical adversity, and an appreciation and outlook on life we never knew was possible. We experience a healthcare system in need of change, a research community in need of a road map for collaboration and funding, and a paralysis community fighting for a voice for advocacy.
The Christopher and Dana Reeve Foundation has been the primary force behind advocacy for these issues ever since its creation, and it will continue to be the guiding light in the ongoing effort for both cure and care for years to come. The inaugural Reeve Summit brought researchers, physicians, rehabilitation centers, spinal cord injury survivors, and advocates together for three days in Washington D.C. to discuss cure, care, and the future of spinal cord injury research and awareness. Keynote addresses were made by Christopher Reeve’s daughter, and Vice-Chair of the Board of Directors Alexandra Reeve Givens, Chief Scientific Officer Ethan Pearlstein, and Good Morning America’s Robin Roberts.
While still a long way from a cure – the spinal cord injury world is at an exciting time as research and knowledge of both neurorecovery and rehabilitative interventions are advancing. It’s important for scientists and researchers to challenge each other , but also communicate and collaborate for CURE and CARE. In the meantime, the paralysis community – people recovering from and living with paralysis need to be ready, stay healthy, and ENJOY THIS LIFE!
The healthcare system must build an infrastructure for a proper continuum of care to improve lives, and provide adequate access to interventions NOW! That is part of the small role we are proud to play at NeuroHope.
When the injured “join” this community, we realize there are passionate voices that will not give up on advocacy for cure, care, and rehabilitative access. Research, healthcare, quality of life, and disability rights are all connected in this world.
Many thanks to the Christopher and Dana Reeve Foundation for being the force that brings these voices together.
https://www.neurohopewellness.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/Reeve-Summit-2020-1.jpg303797Chris Leeuw/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/NeuroHope_Color.svgChris Leeuw2020-03-03 15:56:162022-09-26 16:35:19NeuroHope at Inaugural Reeve Summit
NeuroHope is the newest affiliate of the Christopher and Dana Reeve Foundation NeuroRecovery Network (NRN), and has been featured as a spotlight program on their website / newsletter! Read the original article here!
Full text copied below:
“There is no preparation for a spinal cord injury,” says Chris Leeuw. “You wake up one morning a physically fit, able-bodied person and in the blink of an eye your life is completely transformed. When you are looking at paralysis and the potential permanence of that, that’s a situation that’s almost impossible to describe.”
Leeuw is the Founder and Executive Director of NeuroHope, the newest Christopher & Dana Reeve Foundation NeuroRecovery Network® (NRN) Community Fitness and Wellness Facility in Indianapolis, IN. In August 2010, he sustained a level C4 spinal cord injury in a swimming accident that initially left the then 28-year-old paralyzed from the neck down. Like many, Leeuw was given a poor outlook.
“After a few weeks, I began to see some signs of hope,” said Leeuw. “Early recovery in my fingers and right leg gave me the inspiration I needed to do more. My time in outpatient therapy was up and I was still mostly paralyzed. I knew that with more rehab, I had a good chance of recovery.”
In 2011, he travelled to Neuroworx in South Jordan, UT, a NRN Community Fitness and Wellness Facility at the time.
“Neuroworx understood neurological recovery and had the resources and experience to help me get my life back,” said Leeuw. “It took two years to get where I am today, walking and independent. Recovery is slow and different for everyone, but much of the journey is similar for all who are hurt.”
Although Leeuw has had a good deal of recovery, his injury is still a big part of his everyday life.
“I wanted to bring the cutting-edge interventions I’d experienced at Neuroworx back to Indianapolis,” said Leeuw. “Living with a spinal cord injury is not just about recovery, it is about long-term maintenance. Every movement is a conscious effort. These recoveries are a lot more than neurologic return, a lot of it is maintaining your body afterward.”
In 2015, he opened NeuroHope as a part-time clinic in a small University of Indianapolis gym with a therapy mat and a vision.
“Right now in traditional healthcare, people get discharged from inpatient and insurance will reimburse only for a limited number of outpatient visits. Then they go home,” said Leeuw. “These individuals need more time to maximize their recovery. They need time to learn some of the skills to deal with their new life, and in most communities, there is no place for them to go. There is a void in long-term rehab options.”
Leeuw reached out for community support. Working with the Indiana state legislature, Leeuw received a nearly $1 million grant from the Indiana Spinal Cord and Brain Research Fund which allowed NeuroHope to expand. The facility moved into a larger space, bought new equipment and now sees 50 participants a year, with a hope to double that number by 2019.
“My main goals were to create a clinic where people could come for continued, affordable care and we wanted to join the NRN,” said Leeuw. “I saw first-hand the value of the NRN interventions and I wanted badly to bring that to Indiana.”
In 2017, NeuroHope’s staff was invited to begin training to become a NRN Community Fitness and Wellness facility.
“We are thrilled to be part of the NRN. It gives us a chance to reach more people and bring that level of care to Indiana for affordable private pay rates,” said Leeuw. “Healthcare is great here but we want to go beyond that so people can continue their care. This is about providing a wellness center in addition to therapy where disabled individuals, wounded veterans, stroke survivors, brain injury survivors can go to exercise to live a long, happy and healthy life.”
Leeuw continues, “An injury changes you, changes your family, and changes your character. Every family needs more help when they leave the hospital. Our hope is to be there for them as they navigate their new path, and put them in the best position to maximize their recovery and quality of life.”
https://www.neurohopewellness.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/NRN-story-blog.jpg350960Chris Leeuw/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/NeuroHope_Color.svgChris Leeuw2018-03-26 16:01:452022-09-26 16:38:24NeuroHope: Reeve Foundation Spotlight!