PAUL FORSYTH/Niagara This Week
Niagara will soon be home to a high-tech rehabilitation facility the likes of which may not exist anywhere else in Ontario.
Officials at the Hotel Dieu Shaver Health and Rehabilitation Centre in St. Catharines unveiled plans on Wednesday for a $2-million project that will give patients needing rehab cutting edge therapy.
The project involves enclosing an existing courtyard at the centre, Niagara’s regional rehab and continuing care facility, creating an expansive 5,700 square feet of new space.
Inside that space will be the equipment that’s at the heart of the project. Shaver chief executive officer Jane Rufrano said it will include such things as an unweighted treadmill in which people not yet capable of walking fully on their own are supported, a dynamic stair trainer that allows people to begin re-learning how to use stairs, motorized parallel bars and a special gait analysis machine to determine if people are leaning one way or the other while walking.
Along with other treadmills, recumbent bikes, strength training equipment and a track, the facility will also have a full-scale traffic light worth $125,000 that the Region donated. The light will be used by therapists to determine if patients are able to safely cross one, two or four lanes, said Rufrano.
A full-sized car donated by Denis Morris Secondary School will also be inside the centre, so people can learn how to safely get in and out of cars, and there will be a driving simulation computer. Rufrano said that’s important because doctors often take away stroke victims’ driver’s licences.
She said she hopes the Shaver will eventually become a full driver assessment centre.
Four areas in the enclosure will also have flooring that mimics surfaces such as gravel and grass so people can re-learn how to walk on uneven surfaces instead of just smooth tiling.
The various pieces of equipment, worth $258,000 on top of the $2 million construction cost, are being paid for by the Shaver Foundation through its Snowflakes and Angels fundraising campaign, said foundation executive director Brian Kon. Those funds are still being raised, he said.
“It’s totally community support,” he said.
Rufrano said the new centre comes at a time when an aging population is seeing the need for rehab continue to grow in Niagara and across Ontario.
“I don’t have to tell you we’re crowded,” she told staff in the outpatient rehab wing of the Shaver who were gathered for the announcement. “We’re getting more and more crowded.
“This is a much needed expansion of therapy space and will be of huge benefit to our patients and the staff who provide them with care,” she said.
The new facility is expected to be completed next summer. Rufrano said no other Ontario rehab facility will have all of the equipment the Shaver will have.
