Have you ever tried to get a patient down to the therapy gym for their session without success? If so, you know how difficult it is to overcome patient refusals. The reasons given are many: “I’m too tired; My family is visiting soon; I’m afraid I’ll fall; It’s too hard; I just don’t want to.” So what can you do to handle these situations? In this post, I’m going to share a story about a therapist who adjusted her approach to beat this challenge. I hope it encourages you to try something new when overcoming patient refusals.
The RESTORE Difference
At a recent facility visit, an SLP shared that the patient she was scheduled to see refused to come to the gym. Simply put, he didn’t want to do therapy that afternoon. The therapist shared videos of other patients playing RESTORE games to encourage him to come down to the gym. But, the patient still didn’t want to leave and said he would only be interested in playing if he could play in his room. As long as you have an internet connection and a webcam supported device, you can quickly load games. So, the therapist quickly grabbed a laptop and started a session right in her patient’s room!
They played games to address sequencing and Pill Skill for medication management. At the end of the session, the patient expressed how much FUN he had and that he enjoyed not thinking about it being exercise. It was wonderful because we did not have to disrupt the treatment session in the gym in order to bring the technology to another patient bedside. When the therapist decided to think outside of the box by reaching for a new tool, she completed a meaningful 30-minute session with her patient that they both enjoyed!
Let Us Know Your Success Story!
I hope this post illustrates how you can step out of the box to overcome daily challenges. Do you have any stories about RESTORE helping with patient independence? Tell me about it by sending me an email amanda@restoreskills.com. We want to share your smiles, tips, and ideas with all our users.
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