Our Patients
Our Pain Patients
Chronic Pain patients are people who have been coping with pain for a considerable period of time. They may have tried various treatments, undergone various procedures, and have been on a variety of medications, but none of these approaches have adequately dealt with the pain. Equally important, these patients’ physical functioning has been compromised, such that they no longer are able to enjoy the work, home or recreational activities they participated in prior to pain taking over. Pain patients or their families also may be concerned about increasing prescription drug use, which may be creating a dangerous situation for the patient.
We differentiate patients in our pain programs by assessing the level of difficulty pain is causing in their lives, thereby determining the level of care that would be of most benefit to the patient.
While not all patients have all of the following characteristics, generally
a part time patient is experiencing:
- Difficulty functioning due to chronic pain
- Missing too much work due to pain
- Depression or anxiety associated with pain
- Tolerance or dependence on pain medications
- A desire to get off pain medications
- Continuing chronic pain despite medical treatment
- A quality of life negatively affected by chronic pain
- A decline in physical conditioning and level of activity due to chronic pain
- Family and social relationships that are negatively affected by chronic pain
In contrast, a full time patient is:
- Unable to function due to pain
- Unable to work due to pain
- Has severe depression or anxiety associated with pain
- Has pain related substance use/abuse problems
- Needs complex and difficult medication adjustments
- Reports ongoing severe pain despite medical treatment
- Reports no quality of life due to complaints of chronic pain
- Has deteriorated significantly in physical conditioning and level of activity due to pain
- Reports family and social relationships disintegrating due to pain
Our message to all our patients is not that our treatment will render them totally pain free, but that they will be able, through treatment in our program, to mitigate their pain complaints, increase their functioning, and learn to cope with their pain sufficiently to resume productive lives.
Our Head Injury Rehabilitation Patients
The patients in our Head Injury Rehabilitation program have all suffered minor to moderate brain injuries, either caused by an injury or by some other brain trauma. As a result of this they are experiencing “cognitive difficulties”, difficulties in the way they think, that prevent them from functioning as they did previously. This is often accompanied by emotional difficulties as they attempt to make sense of and cope with these difficulties. They may be report an alteration in mental state at the time of the accident, — feeling dazed, disorientated or confused — and may be experiencing:
- Decreased level of functioning at home, work, or school
- Depression
- Reports of confusion or memory problems
- Failure to return to work, up to 4 to 6 weeks following injury
- Worsening of symptoms without a physical basis
- Reluctance or inability to resume driving
- Deterioration in ability to concentrate
- Disordered sleep
- Irritability, fatigue and anxiety
- Headache
We evaluate these patients to determine the specific nature of their cognitive and/or emotional disturbances, and then work with them in developing adaptive strategies that help them to compensate for the abilities that have been compromised by their injury.
Our goal for these patients is to help them return to a life post injury that comes as close as possible to the life they led prior to their accident or event.