Our session on neuro-IFRAH
We had a two day, four hour workshop on neuro-IFRAH this week. This is basically a branch off NDT. It is intended for patients who are affected by lesions that occur at the level of the brainstem and above. It stands for Neuro-Integrative Functional Rehabilitation and Habilitation. The program was started by Waleed Al-Oboudi, MOT, OTR, who actually now has a clinic in La Jolla, CA (my hometown). One of his mentees (is that a word)? taught us, her name was Mary Lindner, I believe.
The first day, we discussed key components of this treatment. Basically, you look at the person holistically and examine 41 different variables that may affect the patient’s recovery from their stroke. The goal is to facilitate movement so they can regain as much movement as possible. We learned about things like “assessment of shoulder girdle mobility and control”, “facilitation of scapula and clavicle to achieve scapular adduction”, etc. We practiced on each other, using our hands in VERY VERY SPECIFIC ways on very specific parts of the body to help facilitate motion. It was a lot harder than it looked.
The OT teaching us was amazingly energetic and enthusiastic so it was a lot of fun. It definitely seemed like a great tool to add to our box of tricks!
The picture above is a picture I took during a break of all the people in my class (not including the distance component of course), since everybody was so colorful! Click on it to make it big!
The picture below is the OT illustrating a technique on Brooke!