Headway Homes

We are very excited about working with Headway Homes to create a home-like setting to meet these needs and provide as high a quality of life as possible for these individuals.

The right median nerve can be stimulated electrically to help arouse the central nervous system for persons with reduced levels of consciousness. The mechanisms of central action include increased cerebral blood flow and raised levels of dopamine. There is 11 years of experience in the USA of using nerve stimulation for acute coma after traumatic brain injury. There is a much longer period of experience by neurosurgeons in Japan with implanted electrodes on the cervical spinal cord for persons in the persistent vegetative state (PVS).

Discipline specific rehabilitation therapists (physiotherapy, occupational therapy, speech-language pathology) were accessed primarily through the then regional Home Care programs. Policies related to provision of discipline specialists were inconsistent and in some regions certain disciplines were not available on other than a very short-term consultative basis. Even when discipline specialists were available, most were not interested in providing the slow-paced rehabilitation that individuals who are STR require, discharging them after several weeks because they needed “only maintenance”.

We are working with Headway Homes to propose to the MOH a support setting that meets these needs. In hope that the MOH will provide the operating funding for ongoing services and the capital to build an appropriate home, we are also looking for an appropriate site for the home to be built and a designer and builder that understand the special needs of this group.