Therapies

At Normandy Manor of Rocky River, our rehabilitation therapy services all have one goal in mind: Helping you regain the highest level of function and the greatest degree of independence possible.

Our therapists are all specially trained, licensed or certified professionals. Our rehabilitation therapists work with an interdisciplinary team of healthcare professionals to design an individual care plan.

Physical Therapy

Physical therapy services begin with an evaluation of your strength, coordination, flexibility, balance, and mobility. Then, the therapist devises a program to help you regain as much strength, physical function, and endurance as possible. Gait training, wheelchair mobility and walker safety techniques may be emphasized.

Occupational Therapy

Occupational therapy helps you relearn everyday self-care skills that were lost due to an illness or injury. Occupational therapy focuses on the activities of daily living – bathing, grooming, toileting, dressing, eating, and housekeeping. An occupational therapist evaluates you to determine how your thinking abilities, limb movement, coordination, mobility, balance and vision are affecting your ability to perform daily tasks. Therapy may include energy-conservation and work-simplification techniques, coordination, strength retraining, and adaptive equipment usage to make these daily living tasks easier to perform. If needed, an occupational therapist may perform a home assessment to determine safety and equipment needs prior to patient discharge from facility.

Speech Therapy

Speech therapy helps you work through verbal communication problems. A speech therapist evaluates your voice, speech, language skills, and cognitive (thinking) abilities. Your speech therapy may include exercises to strengthen either the muscles that help produce speech or the connections between thoughts and words. Speech therapists can also help you if you have swallowing difficulties. Speech therapy works with the clinical dietitian and nursing staff to ensure the safest, most efficient and most nutritious diet for you during your stay.

Complimentary and Alternative Medicine

Qigong (Chi-gong) Breathing – part of tai-chi, these stretching and breathing exercises increase oxygen flow, calm the nervous system, energizes the cells and promotes relaxation.

Guided Imagery – A form of meditation in which the facilitator guides the meditation with verbal suggestions for positive imagery and visualizations. This type of meditation can empower a person to guide their own thoughts and energies in a positive way to connect with the mind and bodies innate healing power.

Sound Therapy with Tuning Forks – The use of tuning forks which are scientifically calibrated to vibrate at certain frequencies which, when introduced into the body’s energy field, create a resonance throughout the body, mind and emotions which can bring deep relaxation, release energy blockages, relieve muscle tension and pain, bring the nervous system into balance, lower blood pressure, improve circulation, improve mental clarity, enhance digestion, increase ability to fight viruses and infection, create a greater sense of well being, and entrain the body’s vibrations to allow natural healing energies to flow into the body.

Reiki – A Japanese form of hands on energy healing. The word Reiki means “universal life force”. The practitioner receives an “attunement” during training which allows them to guide the healing energy through themselves into the client, without depleting their own energy. This can be used while practicing other forms of energy balancing, such as the tuning forks.

Aromatherapy – The use of essential natural oils, made from flower, plant and herb extracts, in a diffuser, which puts the scent in the air or in creams and oils which can be massaged into the skin. The scents are specifically designed to effect certain results, such as calming anxiety, stimulating the appetite or energizing the body and mind.

Art Therapy

Art as Therapy provides participants the opportunity to build enjoyment into life day in and day out. Thus, they gain personal control over the quality of their experiences and most importantly what they experience. The proven long term effects do not just improve the quality of experience but participants increase self esteem, are less prone to stress-related illness, and tend to be happier overall. The positive impact of participatory art programs for older adults on overall health, doctor visits, medication use, falls, loneliness, morale and activities reflects important health promotion and prevention effects and a reduction of risk factors." (Gene D. Cohen, MD, PhD., Center on Aging, Health and Humanities.)(Creativity & Aging Study 2001)

We provide our participants with art experiences in tempera, acrylics, watercolors, ceramics, clay, as well as crafts projects such as sewing projects, jewelry making and wooden crafts. Music is utilized to enhance the experience and encourage flow. Flow is facing challenges above his or her own average level of current challenges, as well as using above average current skills. It has been proven that the presence of flow determines the quality of the experience, whether the participants perceive it as work or leisure.

Over fifty pieces of the residents' art have been matted and framed and are on display throughout our community. The Annual Normandy Manor Art Show in September displayed over thirty works of residents' art and received great reviews and appreciation from residents, family members, visitors and staff.

Music Therapy

Music Therapy involves the Residents in music playing, music games, trivia and reminiscing 5 days a week. User-friendly instruments allow Residents to participate in the songs. There are also song-writing activities which provide a creative outlet. The facility’s music specialist plays guitar, piano, lap dulcimer, Omnichord, American Indian flute and a variety of percussion instruments. A karaoke machine and a large collection of age appropriate CD’s from Big Band and classical to opera, musicals, sing-alongs and hit parade collections from the 20’s through the 50’s are available.

Recorded music, written expressly for healing and relaxation, enhances the effects of alternative therapies such as Reiki, Healing Touch, Wheelchair Tai Chi and Aromatherapy. Studies show that this special kind of healing music reduces pain, anxiety and stress. Music therapy also works well with physical, speech and occupational therapies. People with speech problems due to stroke or head injury can often still sing clearly even though they can’t speak clearly.