Multiple Sclerosis Rehabilitation

Rehabilitation therapy is an important part of your treatment. The Rehabilitation Department at the Comprehensive MS Center provides care for multiple sclerosis and other similar disease (i.e. transverse myelitis, neuromyelitis optica).

Our team includes physical therapy, occupational therapy, speech therapy and neuropsychological services. They work closely with the MS Center's neurologists, physiatrist and other staff members to help you maintain an independent lifestyle with a focus on improving your quality of life.

Physical Therapy

Our physical therapists will:

• Assess your functional mobility (getting out of bed, getting out of chairs, walking)
• Recommend assistive devices if needed, such as a transfer pole, cane, walker, manual wheelchair, power wheelchair or electric scooter
• Assess your range of motion, muscle strength, coordination and core strength as well as fatigue challenges.
• Assess your balance and risk for falls
• Provide a home exercise program targeting your specific needs

Occupational Therapy

Our occupational therapists will:

• Assess any challenges with self care tasks, such as grooming, dressing and bathing, and make recommendations for assistive devices and home modifications
• Look at your activities of daily living, such as homemaking, money management, medication management and day planner use and teach compensatory techniques
• Screen for any deficits in your cognition and visual skills that would affect your activities of daily living and work on compensatory techniques
• Provide a home exercise program to work on improving any areas of concern
• If you have fatigue challenges, we'll show you how to save energy, simplify your work and build a daily routine that allows you to get done what needs to be done
• Perform driving evaluations (not an on-the-road driving evaluation)

Speech and Language Pathology

Our speech and language pathologists will:

• Assess and treat any swallowing issues
• Assess and treat any higher level memory and cognitive changes
• Assess and treat any changes in your speech and voice, and provide communication strategies and augmentative (high or low tech) communication systems

Neuropsychological Services

Our neuropsychologists will:

• Provide coping/counseling to you, your family and your caregivers
• Perform psychological and cognitive evaluations
• Provide psychological adjustment due to the chronic and progressive nature of the disease
• Provide rehabilitation planning

Why choose EvergreenHealth for neurological therapy?

Care by licensed therapists. We take pride in providing hands-on, one-on-one care with a licensed therapist for your entire appointment. At most other rehab centers, the majority of your time is spent with aides or personal trainers.

Comprehensive care. EvergreenHealth Neurological Therapy has the benefit of offering all therapies—physical, occupational and speech—in the same facility. This means our therapists collaborate to provide care that is individualized for you and keeps moving you toward your goals. If you are dealing with coping issues, we also offer neuropsychology counseling. If secondary issues develop, such as pain, swelling or incontinence, we can refer directly to other EvergreenHealth programs for care.

Team approach. With all three therapies under one roof, staff can talk with each other and help point out concerns and offer suggestions. We also make sure that we aren't overlapping services or neglecting an area of therapy. This might go unnoticed when the therapies are done at different locations.

Individualized scheduling. Outpatient therapy schedules are individualized to meet each patient's needs. If you're traveling from out of the area, you can be scheduled for several consecutive days and go back with a home therapy program.

Rehabilitation Care covers the entire second floor of the DeYoung Pavilion on the southwest corner of the EvergreenHealth Kirkland campus. The vibrant space is designed to enhance your experience and promote well-being and offers state-of-the-art equipment to make it a high-tech as well as high-touch rehab center. Free parking is available in the surface lot or in the underground garage.