The new building built for ABI Wellington Rehabilitation recently turned 1. This site, at Hospital Drive in Kenepuru provides Intensive Inpatient Rehabilitation for newly injured clients with moderate and severe Brain Injury and residential support for a smaller number of clients who are not able to live in the community.
Most clients, within this service, are from the lower half of the North Island and upper South Island. The site takes 25 clients and has a full team of rehabilitation clinicians (Rehab Medicine Physicians, Psychiatrist, OTs, PTs, SLTs, Psychologists, Neuropsychologists, Nurses, Rehab Assistants, Social Workers) together with administration and support services.
ABI has had a long history in the Wellington region. This site was purpose-built for ABI with design input from the ABI team, clients and whānau. The ABI team and clients love the open spaces and treatment areas.
Happy birthday to our beautiful whare!
What happens at ABI Wellington at Hospital Drive?
The Hospital Drive site offers Intensive Inpatient Rehabilitation, Residential Support and some outpatient clinics and assessments.
What is Intensive Inpatient Rehabilitation?
The aim of intensive inpatient rehabilitation is to support the best recovery possible, and help the client and whānau learn about and adjust to any long term effects of the injury.
The client and whānau is central to the rehabilitation programme and together with the ABI team an individualised rehabilitation plan will be developed. ABI offers specialised intensive rehabilitation programmes that could be part of the individual plan – these include:
- Medical and Nursing programme
- Emerging consciousness programme
- Neurobehavioural programme
- Community re-integration programme
What happens during intensive rehabilitation?
Pre Admission Assessment: The client is connected into ABI by the ABI Brain Injury Nurse Specialist who works with client, whanau and hospital staff to determine when transfer to ABI is appropriate. ABI’s Brain Injury Nurse Specialists conduct pre-admission assessments within the referring hospital and oversee a seamless transition into the ABI service.
Initial Assessment: Soon after the client is transferred to ABI, from hospital, the client and whānau will meet with rehabilitation team. The team is made up of many clinicians across different rehabilitation disciplines who will gather information and begin assessment about current status, goals, abilities and limitations.
Family whānau conferences: Regular meetings with the rehabilitation team – the client and whānau is an integral member of the rehabilitation team. The meetings discuss progress, goals and the rehabilitation plan.
Programme review: The client will participate in rehabilitation activities, gym sessions and therapy every day. Some of these sessions will take place in the room the client is staying in, the kitchen, lounge area, bathroom, gym, outside at ABI or out in the community.
Where possible, the client will work on activities that allow practice for everyday living skills. Rest is also an important part of TBI rehabilitation and rest periods are timetabled into everyone’s rehabilitation programme.
The client and whānau are integral in what is delivered in this part of the programme and will have daily opportunities to have input into the wider programme and next steps.
Discharge planning: This starts from the day of admission, everyone has the goal of getting home again and it is important to plan for this from the very first moment the client begins rehab at ABI. It is ABI’s goal to get the client home as soon as possible.