What is the Brain and Body Dementia Program?
Buffalo Occupational Therapy (BOT) is a specialty clinic where the occupational therapy practitioners are specialized and can provide clinical excellence. The Brain and Body Dementia Program is for those concerned about early memory loss, those recently diagnosed with a disease that will lead to progressive cognitive decline, and those experiencing Alzheimer’s or related dementias (ADRD). This program was designed by the owner of Buffalo Occupational Therapy and is unique to the BOT studio as we are the only adult outpatient occupational therapy clinic in Erie and Niagara Counties specializing in mobility-based cognitive training. Buffalo Occupational Therapy is the only rehabilitation clinic that provides you a progressive program that encorporates all current research-based strategies for improving and maintaining memory and brain function while facing progressive diseases.
What kinds of treatments and methods do we use
in the Brain and Body Dementia Program?
Neuromuscular
Re-education (NMRE)
NMRE is used by neurocentric occupational therapists to improve communication between your muscular system and nervous system. By promoting this stream of communication, you close the circle of recovery. Without NMRE, you can have the biggest muscles in the world and still experience mobility deficits due to poor reaction time, coordination, and mixed signals.
Neurodevelopmental Techniques (NDT)
NDT is a hands-on approach used by occupational therapists to provide deep pressure to key parts of your body during repeated movements. Your movement mixed with repetition and deep pressure creates and stores new motor patterns in your brain in order to re-establish mobility and speed up recovery.
Proprioceptive Neuromuscular Facilitation (PNF)
PNF is an advanced neurological-based approach to increase flexibility and range of motion after a neurological event or soft-tissue injury. Most commonly used after stroke and traumatic brain injury, PNF recruits your nervous system throughout assisted and resisted stretching in order to increase function and independence.
Heavy Work
Heavy work is also known as resistance training and can utilize isometric and isotonic movements with or without external weights while focusing on eccentric and concentric muscle contractions. By partnering heavy work with visual perceptual tasks and neural recruitment visualization, increased carryover and recovery is experienced.
Cross-Crawl Techniques
A cross-crawl technique is used in movement and mobility training of both upper body and lower body. By recruiting both sides of your brain using opposite movement patterns we strengthen the communication across the two sides of your brain known as your corpus collosum.
Visual Perception Strategies
Your vision is crucial in recovery and can affect many areas of healing. We incorporate visual perceptual elements into many treatments to enhance perception, balance, safety, cognition, memory, recall and neural excitation. Some areas of visual perception include form constancy, visual discrimination, figure-ground perception, visual closure, visual memory, and visual sequential memory.
Neurocognitive Strategies
When combining neurcogitive skills and functions with motor elements, true cognitive rehabiliation can take place (memory, recall, sequencing, etc.). We include the domains of neurocognition like language, calculation, executive functioning, complex attention, perceptual-motor, and reasoning while training your body in order to increase neural plasticity and neural re-patterning.
Brain Work
Brain work is essential in ever element of care, especially for individuals experiencing memory impairment. If you are seeing us for cognitive rehabilitation, we incorporate brain work by alternating NMRE, PNF, Heavy working and Brain work to increase intentional recall, selected attention, and focus.
Use of Self
Unlike many clinics and approaches to therapy, Neurocentric occupational therapists strive to use a therapeutic use of self as much as possible. This includes a hands-on approach by the therapist through PNF and NDT, but also as little ‘extra’ tools and equipment as possible. We believe the body desires to heal itself. Neurocentric rehabilitation helps facilitate this healing and restoration through many strategies.
Functional Application
The sole purpose and intention of occupational therapy is to restore function and maximize independence. We beleive there is a specific way to approach rehabilitation in order to not only heal and restore physical function, but also to train the body to be independent again after an injury or ailment. We were made to adapt to physical and environmental changes, the hybrid model of occupational therapy begins by restoring physical function and ends with ensuring that physical function can be applied to your daily life.
Patient Education
Patient education and transparency are of utmost importance to us. True recovery can only take place by equipping someone with the knowledge of what has happened to their body, what can be done to help fix it, and how the therapeutic process works. When you can visualize the process, you can visualize successful outcomes. Healing begins in your mind.
Neuromuscular Massage (NMM) and Kinesiology Tape (KT Tape)
Neuromuscular massage helps many diagnoses. Most specifically used for chronic pain and the release of trigger points (knots), NMM can help resolve debilitating pain resulting from soft tissue implications. Another way we use NMM is to enhance reaction time in individuals after a traumatic neurological event. Studies suggest that NMM can break up adhesions allowing for stronger and faster communication between nerves.
What will I experience in the Brain and Body Dementia Program?
Buffalo Occupational Therapy practitioners are experts in occupational therapy practices making us the number one occupational therapy practice to contact for complete bio-physical-psycho-social-neurological rehabilitation.
How long is the Dementia Program?
The Brain and Body Dementia Program begins as a minimum of 8-weeks but many times continues at the request of patients hoping to maximize their brain function.
Once discharged from the original 8-week program or the patient reaches their highest level of neuromuscular communication and executive functioning, the patient will return to the studio every 3 months or 6 months for a cognitive/wellness screen depending on the circumstances.
If a decline is noted, the patient will re-engage with a treatment program.
How long is the Dementia Program?
Because the mobility-based cognitive program for dementia and memory is specific to the B.O.T. Studio, you will not find another approach like this anywhere in Western New York.
Some of the strategies we use during the course of the program are found in the description of memory training for dementia and Alzheimer’s diseas
Specific Diagnoses that benefit from Brain and Body Dementia Program
What should you expect as a
patient or client?
- One-on-one attention from the first evaluation throughout the term of your maintenance program.
- Open lines of communication between you and your therapist. If something is not working or you are frustrated with your progress, we re-evaluate your plan or care or alter our approach so you feel you are maximizing your time spent in therapy
- Hope. Our therapists see hope and therapeutic potential when most give up on functional return. By studying, researching, and thinking outside of the box – our therapists are set apart from all other clinics.
- Be ready to always maximize your potential. By identifying your strengths and implementing those into every treatment session, outcomes are easier to see.
- A whole-body approach. Occupational therapists address biophysical symptoms, psychological-social symptoms, neurological-communication and cognitive symptoms as well as function-based/environment implications. Because we are trained in the whole body, we are the best solution for recovery.
Commitment to Results
The biggest obstacle you will face to your rehabilitation is oftentimes yourself. A crucial element to our approach to rehabilitation is a formal commitment of both you and your therapist to the plan of care, a home exercise program, a positive outlook, and follow-through.
Every patient we see is unique. Even with the same diagnoses, you may be experiencing an entirely different set of symptoms. The human body is not an exact science, but we are dedicated to giving you one-on-one, specialized attention. This means your therapist will dedicate time, outside of the workplace, to understanding how to address your specific needs as quickly and efficiently as possible! Through education, research, textbooks, and understanding best practices, your therapist will go above and beyond. We expect the same level of commitment from you! You don’t need to research, but we would ask that you commit to the plan of care set! What we do is methodical, purposeful, and takes time — but outcomes will come!
Remember, it takes time to see results, re-train your body and brain, eliminate chronic pain, and restore function. Many times your injury or ailment did not appear overnight, and likewise, will not disappear in 1-2 sessions.
Do we accept Referrals?
Buffalo Occupational Therapy accepts self-referrals through
direct access as well as referrals and prescriptions for
occupational therapy services from medical providers,
specialists, and Chiropractors. Because we know how
important it is to get started in occupational therapy right
away, we work with our patients to obtain the necessary
signatures and referrals for maximum insurance coverage.
Referring to Buffalo Occupational Therapy is simple!