Shepherd Center Radio

David and Brittany Carter met four years after David sustained a T-7 injury in a motorcycle crash in August 2010. He had been looking for someone who could see past his wheelchair for who he really was, and he found that in Brittany. On a new episode of Picking Our Brain with Shepherd Center, David and Brittany join us to discuss navigating a relationship after injury.

Nutrition is an essential part of staying healthy for us all; it also plays a vital role in during and after recovery from injury. In this episode, Jill Newsome, clinical nutrition manager at Shepherd Center, and Allison Motter, dietitian at Shepherd Center, join us to discuss what maintaining a healthy diet means during recovery.

Family members and caregivers are an important part of the rehabilitation and treatment process. Christine Trotman's daughter Eliana first began experiencing symptoms of neuromyelitis optica in December 2020. As her daughter began treatment at Shepherd Center's Andrew C. Carlos Multiple Sclerosis Institute, Christine found herself adjusting to her role as a caregiver. In this episode, Christine shares her experience, as well as advice for other caregivers.

Are you a workers' compensation case manager, claims manager or life care planner who are seeking options for their injured client? In this podcast, Gloria Fagan, RN, BSN, worker's compensation outreach manager at Shepherd Center, discusses the services provided for injured workers, the admissions process, and going back home or to work after injury.

On Veterans Day and every day, we are grateful to the brave men and women who serve our country at home and abroad. In this episode of Picking Our Brain with Shepherd Center, we're joined by Travis Ellis, co-founder of Shepherd's Men. Comprised of active or retired servicemen and civilian volunteers, Shepherd's Men enthusiastically raises awareness and funds for the SHARE Military Initiative (SHARE) at Shepherd Center in Atlanta, GA and advocates for veterans experiencing the hidden injuries of war.

The return of fall sports brings with it a return of a common sports risk—concussions. In this episode, Russell Gore, M.D., medical director of the Complex Concussion Clinic at Shepherd Center, discusses what causes a concussion, the risk factors for concussion in sports and how concussions are treated.

September is Spinal Cord Injury Awareness Month! In 2006, Ben Trockman sustained a spinal cord injury in a dirt bike accident. Today, he is the diversity and inclusion outreach specialist at Old National Bank, where he focuses on the inclusion of people with disabilities for the workforce and the community the bank serves. He is also a member of his local city council. Ben joins Picking Our Brain with Shepherd Center to discuss his experience with rehabilitation and his work with disability inclusion.

The transition back home following rehabilitation is a major step—for both the patient and their caregivers. At Shepherd Center, the Transition Support Program prevents rehospitalization, improves health and safety outcomes, and promotes patient and family autonomy once the patient is discharged from Shepherd Center. Laura O'Pry, manager for the Transition Support Program, joins the podcast to discuss the role of family caregivers during this process.

Electric scooters can be a convenient and fun way way to get yourself from point A to point B—but it's also important to get yourself to point B safely. The Georgia Governor's Office of Highway safety has teamed up with Shepherd Center to create Scoot Safe, the first federally funded, evidence-based electric scooter injury prevention campaign. Emma Harrington, injury prevention director at Shepherd Center, speaks with us about why this campaign matters, and the best ways to keep yourself—and others!—safe.

No one expects stroke to happen, especially in young adults. Seth Dickinson was a freshman at the University of Mississippi when he experienced a ruptured brain aneurysm and AVM rupture in March 2015. In this episode, Seth joins Picking Our Brain with Shepherd Center to speak about his experience with rehabilitation and returning to school.

April is Occupational Therapy Month! Occupational therapists help patients in rehabilitation improve their independence with daily living activities. In this podcast, two Shepherd Center occupational therapists discuss the individualized therapy they provide on the continuum of care.

Patient safety is everyone's job! From administrators and environmental services to food services and industrial engineers, all aspects of healthcare impact safety. Jacqueline Baron-Lee, PhD, CPHQ, PMP, Director of Quality and Outcome Management at Shepherd Center, joins the podcast to discuss the importance of patient safety.

February is Recreation Therapy Month! Jenny DiLaura, MA, CCLS, CTRS, lead therapist for health and wellness in Shepherd Center's recreation therapy program, joins the podcast to discuss the role of recreation therapy in the rehabilitation process. She also discusses how the program has adapted during the COVID-19 pandemic, utilizing both in-person therapy and virtual wellness classes.

Janera Baskerville discusses her experiences with stroke rehabilitation and SHARE Military Initiative at Shepherd Center.

John Smith, Director of Government Relations & Advocacy explains voters' rights for those who have disabilities.

Dr. Angela Beninga discusses telemedicine visits during COVID-19, what to expect and how to prepare for your appointment.

Dr. Rosenthal discusses Common Myths About Multiple Sclerosis.

Dr. Michael Yochelson and Dr. Jesse Couk discuss Coronavirus, how it spreads, symptoms and preventative measures you should take.

As we enter the new year, many of us are crafting resolutions to focus on our health and fitness in 2020. Shepherd Center embraces a total approach to fitness and wellness that emphasizes physical and mental well-being with facilities that accommodate land-based and aquatic classes, personalized programs, private lessons and personal training. In today's podcast, Lisa Eagen, Lead Exercise Physiologist in Shepherd Center's ProMotion Fitness Center, will discuss how to approach a fitness routine that meets your needs after injury.

In today's podcast, Pete Anziano, Shepherd Center Peer Support Manager discusses wheelchair accessibility in public spaces, and proper etiquette around wheelchair users.

Chronic pain is in an extremely complex and poorly understood medical problem that can have profound effects on one’s physical and mental wellbeing. Uncontrolled pain impacts all aspects of daily activities. But how do you when it's time to see a pain specialist? Dr. James Liadis, physiatrist in the Dean Stroud Spine and Pain Institute at Shepherd Center, explains in this podcast.

Diving is the fourth leading cause of spinal cord injury for men, and the fifth for women, according to the National Spinal Cord Injury Statistical Center. A single dive can result in a life-altering injury. Diving injuries take place in swimming pools, lakes, rivers, creeks, swimming holes and any water environment. In this podcast, Emma Harrington, Shepherd Center’s Director of Injury Prevention Education, discusses how and where diving injuries occur, and how to prevent them.

Each year more than 100 adolescents, ages 12 to 21, come to Shepherd Center from all over the country. They or their families choose Shepherd for its specialized treatment teams, age-appropriate therapy and expertise in treating teens and young adults with spinal cord injuries. The adolescent rehabilitation program follows Shepherd Center's philosophy of returning patients to the highest possible level of functioning and independence, while addressing adolescents' needs for autonomy, privacy and control. Cheryl Linden discusses the Adolescent Rehabilitation Programs available at Shepherd Center.

Ian Flannery discusses the MS Wellness program at Shepherd Center. He explains the different approaches of care, and how the  program empowers patients to stay active and decrease the effects of deconditioning that can result from MS.

Cecilia Rider the Associate Manager of the Recreation Therapist Department at Shepherd Center shares why recreation is imperative for someone with a disability, the many benefits associated with recreational activity, and how to find workshops and events in your community.

Shepherd Center's Assistive Technology Center works with technologies like smart phones, tablets and voice-activated devices to provide assistance and support to people living with disabilities. Shepherd Center occupational therapists evaluate each user's lifestyle requirements and functional abilities, then provide custom modifications to hardware, software, electronics and other appliances so that users can live safely and function productively. Adina Bradshaw, a speech pathologist at Shepherd Center, discusses how Shepherd Center uses adaptive technology to fit the patients' needs.

Animal assisted therapy can play an important part in the rehabilitation process for patients with spinal cord injury or acquired brain injury. Shepherd Center "employs" multiple therapy dogs who bring joy to patients and also help with therapeutic exercises. In addition, they assist with tasks such as opening doors and switching lights on and off. Shepherd Center exercise physiologist Mary Ashlyn Thiede discusses the role of therapy dogs and the benefits of animal assisted therapy.

At Shepherd Spine and Pain Institute, doctors offer a variety of treatments and comprehensive care for chronic back pain, one of the most common types of pain that people experience. In today’s podcast, Dr. Erik Shaw, an interventional pain management specialist at Shepherd Spine and Pain Institute, addresses the causes of back pain and how to know when your pain has become a chronic problem requiring medical attention. Dr. Shaw also explains the variety of treatment options available for chronic back pain.

The CRU was designed for patients who are admitted with conditions that occurred post-injury or disease and offers treatment to stabilize these conditions and help secure better health. Wes Chay, MD, discusses The Comprehensive Rehabilitation Unit at Shepherd Center, and how it provides additional levels of care to help secure better future health.

Progressive forms of MS are characterized by a sustained build-up of symptoms with an insidious increase in disability. With Primary Progressive MS (PPMS) in particular, disability accumulates twice as fast as in those with Relapsing MS (RMS). This means that people with PPMS experience more problems with walking, more difficulty remaining in the workforce, and require more assistance with everyday activities.Ben Thrower, MD and the medical director of the MS Institute at Shepherd Center, discusses maintaining a healthy lifestyle with progressive MS.

Concussions are mild traumatic brain injuries caused by a sudden jolt or blow to the head and typically resolve within a week or two. In typical concussions, headaches and other symptoms subside, and patients feel as capable as they did before their injury. Russell Gore, MD, director of Shepherd Center’s Complex Concussion Clinic, will discuss sports related concussions and the rehabilitation process.

In today’s podcast Rebecca Washburn, MS, discusses the importance of fitness after injury and the ways Shepherd Center’s facilities and programs promote healthy living for people with disabilities.

Patients with catastrophic injury face a higher severity of illness requiring complex medical management. As medical complexity evolves in the course of rehabilitation, Shepherd Center assures access to specialized medical needs. A team of experts including physiatrists, internal medicine/pulmonology intensivists and specialized clinicians collaboratively manage the most medically complex, traumatic patient care needs. In today’s podcast, Shepherd Center chief medical officer Michael Yochelson, M.D., MBA, discusses complex rehabilitation care and efforts to minimize conditions that could result in setbacks for patients.

Shepherd Center provides assistance from vocational rehabilitation case managers after rehabilitation for a spinal cord or brain injury. They assist clients in returning to their previous jobs, pursuing new employment options or preparing them for employment in the future. Case managers make recommendations and help implement workplace accommodations to support the client’s independence and autonomy. Additionally, case managers educate employers and help manage clients’ disability benefits whether it’s through Social Security or their own long term disability plans.In today’s broadcast, Shepherd vocational specialist and peer support liaison Zachary Bradley discusses workplace accessibility for people with disabilities.

Cannabidiol (CBD) is a non-psychoactive compound found in the cannabis plant often used by patients as an oil to manage the symptoms of chronic conditions. In today’s podcast, Ben Thrower, M.D., the medical director of the Multiple Sclerosis Institute at Shepherd Center, will discuss the use of CBD products in managing the symptoms of MS.

Shepherd Center sponsors 11 sports teams that enable individuals with physical disabilities to participate in sports on a recreational or competitive level. Athletes compete in local and regional competitions, as well as at the national and international levels. Regular practice sessions offer expert instruction, as well as camaraderie and peer support. In today’s podcast, sport teams coordinator Matt Edens discusses the program and how it raises awareness about disabilities and increases participation in adapted sports.

In partnership with the Georgia Governor’s Office of Highway Safety, Shepherd Center has created AutoCoach, an app that teaches parents how to effectively and safely teach their teen to drive. AutoCoach aims to improve parental supervisory behaviors and involvement through quizzes, distraction notifications, driving logs and a ten-chapter curriculum based on best practices. In today’s podcast, Shepherd Center director of injury prevention Emma Harrington discusses how the app aims to combat motor vehicle crashes and promote injury prevention. The app will be available as a free download in the Apple and Google Play app stores in summer 2017.

Caring for a person with a neurodegenerative disease can be extremely challenging. Beyond the potential physical exhaustion caregivers may experience, they also may experience emotional and psychological changes when having to take care of someone else, and it is a potential problem that needs to be addressed. In this podcast, Deborah Backus, director of multiple sclerosis research at Shepherd Center and co-author of the paper “Coping With Caregiver Burnout When Caring for a Person With Neurodegenerative Disease: A Guide for Caregivers,” discusses the importance of recognizing and addressing the impact of caregiving.

People with spinal cord injuries and their families often feel anxious about returning home after rehabilitation and dealing with the many challenges related to living with such injuries. Patients with SCI who receive more intensive peer mentorship have more active engagement in rehabilitation, greater self-efficacy and lower hospital readmissions.In this segment of Shepherd Center Radio, Minna Hong, the Spinal Cord Injury Peer Support Program supervisor at Shepherd Center, discusses the value of peer support and the importance of peer-led self-care education classes after injury.

Today, Shepherd Center access case manager Dorea Fowler discusses treatments for people with spinal cord injury in the first 72 hours after injury. This podcast describes the way spinal cord injury affects the body, including the levels of injury and muscles that coordinate with those injuries, and how people with spinal cord injury differ from other patients in an intensive care unit.

When a patient has a spinal cord injury, depending on the level of injury, breathing can become the most important issue they and their family are facing. When a patient has limited use of their diaphragm, respiratory therapists assist through ventilator management or coughing assistance. Respiratory therapists keep the patient breathing and get them breathing on their own before physical recovery can begin.Shepherd Center respiratory therapist Kelley Taylor is here today to speak about the role of respiratory therapy in the rehabilitation process.

About 700,000 strokes occur in the United States each year. To serve the healthcare needs of these patients, Shepherd Center provides a full continuum of services – from inpatient rehabilitation to outpatient care for stroke rehabilitation. The hospital’s program specializes in rehabilitation for people who may be in college, raising a family or in the prime of their career. In today’s podcast, Dr. Andrew Dennison, a board-certified physical medicine and rehabilitation physician with an additional subspecialty board certification in brain injury medicine, discusses symptoms and risk factors of a stroke, as well as some therapies and treatments that are typically used in rehabilitation.

Secondary complications are a major health issue for people living with brain and spinal cord injury. Secondary conditions are negative health outcomes that occur as a direct result of a disability. The most common secondary conditions for these patients are pressure sores, respiratory complications, urinary tract infections, spasticity and neuropathic pain.Today, Angela Beninga, D.O., a staff physiatrist in Shepherd Center’s Multispecialty Clinic and the director of Shepherd Center’s Spinal Cord Injury Day Program, joins us to discuss diagnosis and treatment for common complications post-discharge.

The Andrew C. Carlos MS Institute at Shepherd has extensive experience treating people with multiple sclerosis (MS), suspected MS or related disorders. The MS Institute at Shepherd has treated thousands of people with MS using a wide range of neurological and rehabilitative services. Additionally, Shepherd Center engages in research to improve clinical outcomes and the quality of life for individuals with MS. Today, Dr. Guy Buckle, M.D., MPH, director of neuroimaging research at Shepherd Center, discusses advances in technology and neuroimaging research that aid in the treatment of MS.

Are you a workers' compensation case manager, claims manager or life care planner who are seeking options for their injured client? In this podcast, Heddi Silon, the director of workers compensation at Shepherd Center, discusses the admissions process for patients covered under worker’s compensation. In this segment of Shepherd Center Radio, we discuss options for patients who need a “tune up,” those who never participated in rehabilitation, or injured workers who have previously participated in rehabilitation and are more than six months post-injury.

Brain injury affects the entire family, not just the injured person, and the support of the family system plays a significant role in recovery. In this podcast, Tana Hall, a family counselor for the Acquired Brain Injury Program at Shepherd Center, discusses the grieving process and how brain injury impacts the family system. She offers strategies for families to cope with the long-term effects of brain injury.

About 700,000 strokes occur in the United States each year. A stroke can affect a person physically and emotionally, and can affect the way a person thinks (cognition) and acts (behavior). Living with and returning home following a stroke can be daunting, requiring preparation for a patient’s ongoing safety, accessibility and independence. Listen in as clinical nurse specialist Tiffany LeCroy joins us to discuss stroke education for Shepherd Center patients undergoing rehabilitation in the stroke program, addressing stroke awareness, prevention and how to manage life after a stroke.

Athletes have long thrived at Shepherd Center. Over the past 41 years, Shepherd Center has treated countless patient-athletes from across the country who played high school, college or professional sports. In addition to occupational and physical therapy, patients have access to the largest team of recreation therapy specialists in the nation, as well as to an adaptive sports program that includes competitive teams, sports and health clinics, and outdoor recreation workshops. Listen in as Dan Dale, SCI Day Program Physical Therapist, explains the rehabilitation process for athletes who sustain spinal cord injuries.

Shepherd Center engages in research to improve clinical outcomes and the quality of life for individuals with multiple sclerosis (MS). At the hospital’s MS Rehabilitation and Wellness Research Program, researchers study the effects of rehabilitation and exercise interventions for people with MS, and studies also address vocation and quality of life. Researchers also make a concerted effort to share their findings to people with MS, as well as MS healthcare providers, caregivers and healthcare payers in hopes of optimizing function and quality of life for all people living with MS. Shepherd Center’s MS research program is unique in that it is truly an integration of clinical and research endeavors. This integrated team, led by Dr. Deborah Backus, PT, Ph.D., FACRM, is comprised of physical and occupational therapists, speech therapists, exercise specialists, physicians and research collaborators from various related fields and institutions, who endeavor to answer meaningful questions that can be translated into clinical practice.

The increasingly widespread use of opioid painkillers for chronic pain has created a public health crisis as many people are abusing these highly addictive medications. Aiming to reduce the number of opioid prescriptions doctors write, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recently issued guidelines that recommend doctors try pain relievers like ibuprofen before prescribing the highly addictive pills, and that they give most patients only a few days’ supply. But pain intervention specialists actually have a number of other alternative treatments that may address chronic pain with little or no medication. Today, Dr. Erik Shaw of Shepherd Spine and Pain Institute addresses the opioid crisis and explains some pain interventions that are helping patients manage their condition without addictive painkillers.

Each year, an estimated 2.4 million people in the United States sustain a traumatic brain injury (TBI), and another 795,000 people are diagnosed with an acquired brain injury (ABI) from non-traumatic causes, such as stroke. Brain injury can have significant, long-term effects. In fact, more than 5.3 million Americans are living with a lifelong disability because of TBI, and an estimated 1.1 million have a disability related to stroke. With this large of an impact, many caregivers are seeking help from online educational resources. To meet the needs of its brain and spinal cord injury rehabilitation patients and their families, Shepherd Center created an educational website found at MyShepherdConnection.org. An in-depth section is devoted to brain injury-related topics, such as mood, behavior, memory, safety, nutrition, medication management and family dynamics. Instructional videos and other educational materials are also available on the website. A number of other online resources also provide valuable information.Here to discuss My Shepherd Connection and other resources is Susan Johnson, director of brain injury services at Shepherd Center.