One of the newest members of our therapy team here at Paramount is Rebecca “Becky” Hopkins, OT. Becky comes to Paramount with a unique perspective as a clinician and a unique skill set. Becky was previously involved in a motor vehicle accident that resulted in months of difficult rehabilitation. She has sacrificed and worked very hard to get to where she is today. Many things that Becky requires of her patients, she herself has lived through. This has allowed each patient to trust her and form a special bond. Becky has a unique understanding of the difficulties and hardships involved in rehabilitation, both continence in personal dignity and quality of life. Overcoming incontinence has become a passion and focus for her in her Occupational Therapy career.
In the pursuit of that lofty goal, Becky has established an incontinence program, together with Gia Deeb her COTA, here at Paramount. Becky has lobbied for specific equipment, namely an ACP electrical stimulation unit that aids in reducing tone and spasticity along with eliciting muscle activity and control. This is done through a proprietary protocol called “PENS”. Becky has put together case studies to show its effectiveness prior to our facility purchasing the equipment. She has educated therapy staff on specific pelvic floor protocols to work on in combination with the e-stim modality.
In the short time of initiating this program, Becky has had remarkable results. Patients that were once incontinent of bowel and bladder are now either continent of both bowel and bladder or have demonstrated significant improvement. We are seeing a decrease in the use of supplies such as briefs and wipes. We are seeing the quality of life significantly increase with many of our residents as well as seeing a positive financial impact for our building through this program. As the word circulates of residents’ progress, Becky will often hear requests to come and work with them and bring her “black box.”