Drake Center: Specialized Medical & Rehabilitative Care

 

Patient & Family Handbook

• Your Admission
• Our Approach to
  Your Care
• Preparing for
  Your Stay
• Support for
  You & Your Family
• Managing Your Pain
• Specialized Patient Services
• Preparing for
  Your Discharge
• After Your Discharge

Preparing for Your Discharge

As part of your discharge plan, community reentry sessions may be offered prior to discharge. The goal is to assist you, if needed, in adapting to disabilities before returning to the community. The program can encourage you to focus on various concerns, including problem-solving strategies, awareness of architectural barriers, mobility techniques, and more. Representatives from many departments will be involved in developing your individualized program.

If you are paralyzed or have very limited movement, your therapist may schedule you for practice sessions using an environmental control unit (ECU) to see how it might help in your own home environment. This switch-activated system allows you to use a telephone, turn on lights, change television stations, or control an electric bed without having to call for assistance.

When appropriate, the last days of your stay can be spent in a Transitional Living suite — a homelike, accessible apartment on the nursing unit. In a Transitional Living Suite you can learn new approaches to practical living skills and reinforce techniques learned during therapy sessions. With goals established by the team, you and family members can live here for one to two days to practice and assess your caregiving skills.

Near the end of your stay, the team may schedule a home visit to evaluate your home’s accessibility and safety. They may make recommendations on necessary adaptive equipment and physical changes for your home.

Discharge planning

Development of your discharge plan begins the day you are admitted. You and your family will be expected to participate in the discharge planning process so they will know how to best assist you when you leave Drake Center.

Drake Center’s Case Management department takes into consideration every factor that will make your transition from Drake Center to home or another living arrangement a smooth one.

Your case manager will link you with community resources for such services as home care, therapy, day care, nursing home placement, assisted living, transportation, and assistive equipment as needed. For your convenience, you may choose to receive some of the following services in Drake Center’s own continuum of care: outpatient services (including therapies, Day Hospital, physician programs, and more) and assisted living at Bridgeway Pointe on Drake Center’s campus.