UK first for neuro rehabilitation centre opening in Leeds

A neuro rehabilitation centre specialising in high intensity brain injury and illness rehabilitation has opened in Leeds.

The brand new MOTIONrehab centre is the first of its kind in the country.

The centre provides specialist neuro rehabilitation augmented by robotics and virtual reality technology. It is the only centre in the UK providing high intensity rehabilitation for people recovering from brain injuries such as a stroke and head injury, spinal cord injury and other neurological conditions.

Featuring six treatment rooms and a robotics and VR suite, the centre has housing equipment that enables patients to practise dynamic and motivating exercises to help maintain or regain balance, the ability to walk and hand and arm movement.

There is also a robotic gait trainer that allows patients to make up to 40 times more steps than treadmill training or manual walking practise.

Sarah Daniel, centre owner and clinical director, said: “Rehabilitation is based around the ‘practice makes perfect’ adage: the more you do, the better you get. But this isn’t translating into current delivery models.

“Most rehabilitation programmes are delivered in short bursts, which simply isn’t enough time to complete the level of repetition needed to deliver the information the brain needs to ‘relearn’ movement.

“We know that neuroplasticity – the ability for your brain to essentially ‘rewire’ in response to learning – exists, and we’ve seen rehabilitation results improve significantly when exercises are repeated more frequently over longer periods of time: ideally several hours a day.”

She added: “Many people simply aren’t aware of how much progress it is possible to make with this ‘high repetition’ approach. We want to change that. We want to help more people access these benefits and get their lives back more quickly.

“We’re combining the skills and experience of our team with the very latest VR and robotic-assisted equipment to provide bespoke, high intensity rehabilitation programmes that will give the brain a better chance of re-learning following neurological illness or injury. We are the first facility in the country to be able to do this, and we’re very excited at the potential it offers for recovery.”

The MOTIONrehab centre is the first facility in the UK to offer open access to a set of devices designed to treat all aspects of arm and leg rehabilitation, using robotics and virtual reality.

The devices enable high repetition of movement and are based on gaming technology, which encourages patients to aim for higher scores to keep them motivated.

Sarah commented: “Not only does this make treatment more interesting and engaging for patients, but integrating these devices with traditional therapy means that people at any stage of their rehabilitation, and with any level of disability, can participate in motivating and challenging therapy.

“People want to get well and they want to get their lives back. High intensity rehabilitation has a crucial role to play, and our new centre makes it available and accessible.”