Las Vegas Sun

March 29, 2024

CCSN rehabilitation center a boon to patients

At a new neurological rehabilitation center nestled near the back of the Community College of Southern Nevada's Charleston campus on Thursday, 71-year-old Sheldon Pollins worked with a licensed physical therapist to rebuild strength and use of his right leg.

A stroke paralyzed Pollins' entire right side last December. Now he is one of about 25 patients who undergo intensive, daylong therapy at the clinic. He has improved enough to move back into his own home with his wife three weeks ago.

"I've come quite a way in the last five months," Pollins said, back in his wheelchair for a lunch break after painstakingly walking around the clinic's gym with the help of his physical therapist.

Though it was formally dedicated this morning, CCSN's neurological rehabilitation center has been helping Nevadans with disabilities gain more independence while also training CCSN students in rehabilitative care since June.

On the west side of the center Thursday, CCSN students training to be occupational therapist assistants learned how to make hand splints that will help stroke patients such as Pollins gain control over their muscles once again.

For the day, they practiced making splints on each other, but soon they will be placing splints on patients, said adjunct instructor Mauricio Gomez, a graduate of the CCSN program himself. The experience they are gaining now will greatly help them in their internships later, and in getting a job, Gomez said.

"You get the experience of working with someone with a contracted hand as opposed to someone who doesn't have a problem," said 25-year-old Celeste Lane.

Made possible by a $5 million grant from tobacco settlement money funneled through the state's Office of Disability Services, The Loux Center is a private-public partnership between CCSN's health sciences programs and several nonprofits that serve people with disabilities, program directors said.

The main components come from the Nevada Community Enrichment Program and its national parent company Accessible Space Inc., which provides longterm, holistic treatment for patients who have suffered brain injuries, strokes or other disabling conditions.

The Nevada Community Enrichment Program works with CCSN and the other nonprofits located in The Loux Center to provide comprehensive rehabilitation, education and support to help people with disabilities regain as much independence as possible, program directors for both NCEP and the CCSN said.

The enrichment program is the only comprehensive rehabilitation program in the state and one of few in the country that treats the entire person, program director Bob Hogan said, offering physical therapy, occupational therapy, speech therapy, life skills and work training, counseling and classes such as water aerobics, tai chi and yoga.

Many of its patients were injured in car accidents or in construction accidents, he said.

CCSN likewise is the only institution in the state to offer associate degrees for students in physical therapy assistants or occupational assistants, although UNLV does offer a master's degree in physical therapy, program directors said.

The Loux Center houses the enrichment program clinic, complete with its treatment rooms, gym, aquatic-therapy pool and life skills training facilities, as well as classrooms and clinical labs for CCSN's physical therapy assistant and occupational therapy assistant programs, not to mention office space for seven other nonprofits.

The enrichment program and CCSN share space and equipment at the center, and CCSN students training to be physical therapy assistants or occupational therapy assistants receive hands-on training with patients early in their coursework, said Joe Cracraft, department chair for CCSN's diagnostic and rehabilitative services and program director for the physical therapy assistant program.

Other CCSN students, such as those in the dental hygiene, mental health developmental disabilities and education programs are also benefiting from being able to work with and observe rehabilitation efforts at the center, Cracraft said.

"It provides us with a unique opportunity to have our students involved with an on-campus rehabilitation group where our students can come down and observe what they will someday be capable of doing (in rehabilitating patients)," Cracroft said. "It gives them some hands-on experience in working with traumatic brain injury clients."

Most students don't get that kind of experience until their internships at the end of their training, Hogan said. But CCSN students are working with real-life patients right from the beginning, Hogan said, and are able to practice therapy techniques.

For people with disabilities, The Loux Center also offers almost one-stop shopping by housing eight nonprofits in one facility, Hogan said.

In addition to the clinic, the enrichment program runs a group home for people recovering from brain injuries or other neurological conditions and Accessible Space offers in-home support to people with disabilities, including equipment, home and wheelchair modification.

Other nonprofits in the building include Blind Connect, which serves the vision impaired, Family Ties, which offers support services to the families of children with disabilities, the UNR's Center for Excellence with provides information and referrals on developmental disabilities, St. Mary's Foundation Personal Assistance Services Program for in-home aid, the Center for Creative Therapeutic Arts that offers music and art therapy, and Nevada's only disability publication, "Challenger Magazine."

The center received its name from Donny Loux, the retired chief of Nevada's Office of Community Based Services and the woman who helped make the facility happen, Hogan said. With the help of Nevada Assemblyman David Goldwater, D-Las Vegas, and Sen. Ray Rawson, D-Las Vegas, Loux helped push through the $5 million grant that let Accessible Space build the center in conjunction with CCSN.

Because all of the nonprofit groups at the center only have to pay for basic maintenance and facility costs, they are able to put the money they once paid for rent toward improving and extending their services, Hogan said. Although the enrichment program accepts private insurance, worker's compensation and Medicaid for the rehabilitation services it offers, it uses all of its profits to pay for treatment for indigent patients or those without insurance, Hogan said.

Rehabilitating someone from a brain injury can cost anywhere from $500,000 to $1.5 million, and take as little as three weeks to as long as six months or more, Hogan said.

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