Beebe partners with UD to help chronically ill patients

How many times has a stroke patient, just completing a physical therapy program, asked the therapist, “Now what do I do?”

Beebe Medical Center and the University of Delaware College of Health Sciences have entered into a partnership to answer that question. A team of researchers from both organizations are combining their skills and expertise to create a pilot study to determine whether a community-based exercise program could help patients with chronic physical disabilities maintain the goals they reached in their therapy program.

“We see patients facing this dilemma all the time as they complete their prescribed therapy,” said Camilla Carter, PT, manager of Physical Rehab Services at the Beebe Health Campus on Route 24.

“There are no affordable exercise programs available to the general public that help patients who have suffered a stroke - or patients with chronic disabilities such as those with Parkinson’s disease - maintain functionality. Their communication, physical, mental and emotional issues are unique.”

“What happens,” said Carter, who is heading up the Beebe Medical Center team, “is that so many of these patients end up in a sedentary and often emotionally isolating, physically cloistered lifestyle that sends them right back to the Emergency Department with another stroke, fall or illnesses associated with their disabilities.”

Ingrid Pretzer-Aboff, assistant professor at the University of Delaware (UD) School of Nursing and the leader of the UD research team, said lack of activity is a major risk factor for morbidity and mortality. Fitness centers usually don’t have programs aimed specifically at helping those who have special health needs, she said. “If successful, our model will offer a cost-effective program for these individuals with unique needs.”

The team will start by developing exercise programs designed for patients with Parkinson’s disease and patients suffering from a stroke who have completed their traditional physical therapy sessions. The patients taking part will include 14 or 15 people between the ages of 30 and 85 who have suffered a stroke, and 14 or 15 people 50 years and older who have Parkinson’s disease.

They will attend one-hour sessions twice a week at Beebe Medical Center’s McCurry Conference Center in the Medical Arts Building at the Beebe Health Campus. The classes will include vocal therapies, walking and balance exercises, and mobility training. The patients will be evaluated at Beebe before the exercise program begins and again after 12 weeks.

The university team will lead the research components of the project and Beebe Medical Center, bringing its patient-care experience and expertise, will lead the implementation of the exercise program. Both teams will take part in the evaluation process.

“If the pilot project is successful, we plan to apply for additional funding to continue development, testing and implementation of the exercise program on a larger scale,” Pretzer-Aboff said. “There is a tremendous need for resources like this.”

Carter hopes the program will expand to be used throughout Delaware, and eventually the region, to help those chronically disabled patients who too often lose the mobility and the socialization they gained in the therapy sessions prescribed by their physicians.

“We hope that we can develop a prototype that can be shared as an educational tool with other healthcare providers, healthcare students, community centers, fitness centers and trainers throughout the region. We believe a program such as this would make a significant impact on the quality of life for people living with chronic mobility disorders, their families and their caregivers. No one is doing this in our area,” Carter said.