Download ARNI Institute 2013 Newsletter!

Download ARNI Institute 2013 Newsletter

Welcome to the ARNI Trust Newsletter  2013!

Download or view by clicking on the text 'Newsletter' below..

New! Stroke Recovery Ebooks - get yours on Kindle or IPad now!

Get hold of the new Volumes for Kindle!

 by Tom Balchin

Click on the book covers above to find out more!

 

 

ARNI manual endorsed by the UKSFT

The manual (Successful Stroke Survivor) has been awarded endorsement by the UKSFT - click on the logo below to find out more:

                                                Click logo above to find out more

THE ARNI DECADE CELEBRATION CONFERENCE 28th May and 31st May 2012

Exciting topics in Stroke Rehab Hear from, and speak with, some of the capital’s most distinguished researchers and practitioners in the areas of brain repair and rehabilitation!  Get All the Details Here

ARNI RSM Conference: 28th & 31st May 2012 Please firstly forgive us if you have been sent this in error: it has been sent only to those who opened the email regarding the new publication ‘Successful Stroke Survivor’ by Tom Balchin in December 2011. With the concentration on fulfilling this 4 year project, the ARNI Trust missed out being able to celebrate its Decade Year. ARNI friends and colleagues, stroke survivors and instructors are invited to an exclusive two-day Lecture Series at the prestigious Royal Society of Medicine on 28th May and 31st May 2012. The Conference theme is Rehabilitation from Stroke. As such it seeks to cover as many of the major issues of concern across the stroke care pathway as possible. We will discuss cutting-edge solutions and look at the impact of ARNI over the last ten years.  Come for either both days or just one, but please be aware that places are very limited. We have just forty five places as yet unallocated. Registration is on first come, first served basis. We are really looking forward to seeing you, so please apply immediately. We have an amazing line-up for you, with topics including:   Acute Stroke/TIA Care in the Hospitals Rehabilitation after Stroke: what the NHS can offer Functional Brain Imaging: Action Control Upper Limb Spasticity after Stroke Neural Stem-Cell Research update Motor Control of Voluntary Action Evaluating the Efficacy of the ARNI Approach Long Term Needs after Stroke Effective Goal Setting in Stroke Rehabilitation  Aphasia Rehabilitation after Stroke Internet Solutions for Cognitive Rehabilitation         18 Experts in the field will be presenting, including: Dr Nick Ward, Reader in Clinical Neurology & Hon. Consultant Neurologist, Sobell Department of Motor Neuroscience, Institute of Neurology, UCL Prof Patrick Haggard, Professor of Brain Sciences, Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience & Dept. Psychology, UCL Prof Jane Maxim, Emeritus Professor of Human Communication Science, Division of Psychology and Language Sciences, UCL Dr Christopher McKevitt, Reader in Social Science & Health, School of Health and Social Care Research, Kings College Dr Lakshmanan Sekaran, Consultant Stroke Physician, Clinical Director, Stroke Unit, Luton and Dunstable Hospital Dr Diane Playford, Reader in Neurological Rehabilitation, Dept. Brain Repair & Rehabilitation, National Hospital for Neurology & Neurosurgery, UCL Dr Cherry Kilbride, Senior Lecturer, Physiotherapy, School of Health Sciences and Social Care, Brunel University  Please apply NOW to come to both days or specify the day you would like to come to. Day Rate (including coffee/biscuits times two): £90 (CLICK HERE TO GET YOUR TICKET) Full Conference Rate: (including coffee/biscuits times two): £150 (CLICK HERE TO GET YOUR TICKET) Please view your payment as a way to assist ARNI to continue the work that it does for another successful decade! Please remember that, once paid, your seat(s) will be reserved and others turned away, so no refund can be issued if you do not attend. During the Conference Tea/coffee and biscuits served during morning and afternoon of both days Come and make new friends Come and meet friends old and new, and network with ARNI collegues. Dress Code Dress is RSM standard. For gentlemen: jacket and tie. For ladies: equivalent Get Map/Directions For a map and directions from to the RSM including parking info, click onto this link: MAP Register for the Conference To Register for this event, click onto this button REGISTER ARNI Book/Manual If you haven't got a copy of the Successful Stroke Survivor yet or you want another one (!), click HERE and get yours

How to Register:

Please apply NOW to come to both days or specify the day you would like to come to:

GO TO THIS PAGE TO GET YOUR TICKET

Please view your payment as a way to assist ARNI to continue the good work that it does for another 10 years!

Dress Code: Dress is RSM standard. For gentlemen: jacket and tie. For ladies: equivalent.

Remember, once paid, your seat(s) will be reserved and others turned away, so there are no refunds if you do not attend

Any questions, please email: press the blue button

---

ADDRESS AND MAP

The Royal Society of Medicine
1 Wimpole Street
London W1G 0AE

 View a scalable map on the Multimap website.

By London Underground

Nearest stations: Central and Jubilee lines to Bond Street (Less than 10 minutes walk) or Victoria, Bakerloo and Central lines Oxford Circus (Less than 10 minutes walk).

By bus

Nearest bus routes: 6, 7, 10, 13, 15, 23, 25, 30, 55, 73, 94, 98, 113, 137, 139, 159, 175, 189, 274, 390 are all within walking distance to the RSM.

By car

The RSM is in the congestion charging zone. Wimpole Street is a one-way street, approached from Henrietta Place.

Parking near the RSM

Car parks are located in Cavendish Square and Marylebone Lane, both five minutes walk away.

For more information visit the City of Westminster website.

By foot

1 Wimpole Street is located behind House of Fraser, off Oxford Street.

Chandos House is located off Cavendish Square, within a few minutes' walk of the main RSM building.

Travelling in London

For further information about travelling in London go to the Transport for London website: www.tfl.gov.uk.

Transport for London
Journey Planner

The new Able-X for upper body rehabilitation LOOK!

At ARNI, we are have just been introduced to the  Able-X and we think it has a certain valuable place in the stroke survivor's armoury of upper body rehabilitation strategies. It is important that it is combined with lots of task-related activities to tackle the grasp and release mechanisms of the fingers. 

Able-X is designed to help stroke survivors regain their arm function, through ‘plasticity’ based rehabilitation. 

Able-X is a computer-based rehabilitation tool with five fun exercise games specially designed by scientists and physio-therapists to stimulate and retrain the brain. The system helps restore movement and coordination that has been lost through brain injury such as stroke.

 Able-X is designed for community and home rehabilitation. The system consists of a ‘handlebar with an ‘air mouse’ at one end, which controls the cursor on screen. Used with both hands, the bilateral system allows the good arm to guide and retrain the arm affected by stroke or other brain injury. 

The games can be played standing or sitting.
 The exercises are designed in increasing levels of difficulty requiring greater physical movement, increasing dexterity and concentration.
 
How does it work?
Able-X builds on research that shows new neurological pathways can be created by a combination of repetitive exercise linked to brain stimulation.


It addresses two critical components in rehabilitation:

• Compliance through a fun game format that provides feedback to the user
• A combination of repetitive exercise and active brain engagement.

Results and benefits
Clinical trials by New Zealand’s premier medical school at Otago University showed a significant improvement in upper limb functioning.
 Clinical and observed benefits include:
• Improved arm movement
• Improved arm strength
• Better ability to concentrate
• Improved motivation
• Improved balance

 

If you would like to know more, please visit the Able-X website for more information

  

Get hold of the new ARNI Approach book/manual of strategies

       The Successful Stroke Survivor

        by Dr Tom Balchin

   

Click on the UCL logo below for a review of this book by a UCL Neuroscientist

Dr. Nick Ward, MD, FRCP

Reader in Clinical Neurology and Honorary Consultant Neurologist & Director, Neuroimaging of Plasticity and Recovery, Sobell Department of Motor Neuroscience and Movement Disorders Institute of Neurology, National Hospital for Neurology and Neurosurgery, Queen Square, London

Book/Manual details:

   545 PAGES (A4 format)

       140 illustrated strategies & techniques

690 illustrations and 367 photos

Published by Bagwyn in the UK

ISBN 978 -0-9570786-0-4

The Successful Stroke Survivor is part-book and part-manual for those who have suffered a stroke and have reached the end of formal therapy. 

The highly motivational approach to functional training revealed inside is a distillation of many hundreds of innovative ways created to encourage positive adaptations in the brain after stroke.

Would you like to be able to get up from the floor without any support of any kind? YES!

Would you like to tackle spasticity in your hand? YES!

Would you like to become stronger and less dependent? YES!

The Successful Stroke Survivor will show you how, and much more.

Like the author, many stroke survivors want to retrain and improve. They want techniques evolved from real-life that people in the same situations have learned and had success with… which they can easily understand, adjust to their own physical limitations and practice. Inside, stroke survivors will find out how to:

• Correct balance, co-ordination and posture over time
• Increase muscular, tendon and ligament strength over time
• Decrease muscle shortening and increase isolated movementreturn over time
• Increase confidence and remove fear of the consequences of exercising
• Become progressively more self-sufficient
• Become productive in an occupation and be happy with life

Users are guided to explore and innovate from the strategies, which are shown with accompanying illustration sequences.


Revealed here too are many simple but effective training tools that families, carers and friends can construct, or seek out, in order to drive recoveries forward. It is a massive resource for the switched-on stroke survivor and is set to become the next 'big book' in stroke.

CLINICIANS IN STROKE RECOMMEND IT, TRAINERS ARE USING IT AND STROKE SURVIVORS LOVE IT!

This book/manual has taken 4 years to write and has hundreds reviews written about it by stroke survivors, trainers and experts in stroke and ABI. See the website for all details, including how to reserve your signed, postage paid-for advance copy. The strategies and Approach shown have undergone 2 years of senior clincal physiotherapist due-diligence.

AVAILABLE NOW!

ADVANCE COST: £34.40 for 1 of 100 numbered/signed first edition. Postage £4.60

SAVE £6!! ORDER NOW.

TO FIND OUT MORE AND RESERVE A COPY OF THIS BOOK IN ADVANCE, GO THE BOOK WEBSITE

One year long Brunel University research study into ARNI Approach finishes

On the 21st October, a year long study looking at the efficacy of the ARNI Strategies completed.
Each Friday since July 2010, Dr Balchin and various ARNI instructors in North West London trained stroke survivor groups at the Hillingdon Sports and Leisure Complex. 
The evaluation and training was sponsored by the Hillingdon Council. The Hillingdon Hospital physiotherapists (lead therapist Jackie O'Dowd) identified 4 groups of 6 to 8 community stroke survivor each. Each group received twelve weeks of training by Dr Balchin and instructors. 

The evaluation was performed by the Brunel University team (Drs Cherry Kilbride, Meriel Norris and Amir Mogedeghi). The preliminary results were accepted as a late-breakinng trial for the UKSF Conference. Early indications suggest that functional balance (Berg Balance Scale) and timed walking (10m walk test) have improved. Data from completed focus groups identified a positive influence of inclusion in the classes. Specifically participants highlighted the benefits of the ‘normality’ of the exercises and the variety of abilities and people within the group. 


Here is just one write up from our files, from a stroke survivor's husband:



Neil Gordon - husband of stroke survivor trained by ARNI
I am perforce the full-time carer for my wife Birgit Gordon who had a major stroke in early April 2010.  Until that event I was the CEO of my own international Food and Agricultural Marketing company and travelling extensively in the UK and abroad.


My wife has participated in a Hillingdon Council supported ARNI Stroke Rehabilitation course during the last three months of 2010.  The manual is being used by me in a domestic situation as a guide and enhancement to the rehab exercises demonstrated on that course.


This is a superb training manual with a very extensive range of exercises and techniques clearly described. As a specialist training manual for those running and demonstrating physical stroke rehabilitation techniques in a gymnasium, it is to be hoped that this manual will be become a “bible”.


At a domestic level it is easy for an individual survivor or carer to absorb and put into practice for the stroke victim – in my case for a 73 year old lady unused to significant physical exercise. The ARNI-directed course at the excellent Hillingdon Leisure facilities has been superb for my wife, her self-confidence and well-being, and I observed at several levels for the other eight or nine survivors:


1    Providing an environment of trusted instructors and support in a perfect location. It was also significant that this was outside the daily personal relationship of the carer.
2    The instructors themselves clearly demonstrated the exercises and techniques, and the safe way to perform them while providing physical support for those who needed it.
3    The peer pressure and companionship of other stroke survivors was a huge accompaniment to the exercises demonstrated. Furthermore the fact that the inspirational leader, Tom Balchin, himself was a stroke survivor and able to show what he had achieved – albeit much younger than most and a highly motivated individual!
4    As we are all very well aware the recovery from a stroke is different for each individual according to severity of the physical and mental impairment suffered, the individual age and motivation, and the acceptance of the benefits of practice and exercise. This stroke rehabilitation exercise programme has to be seen in the context of a fully rounded rehabilitation effort by several agencies including the hospitals, the GPs, physiotherapists, psychiatrists, speech and language professionals, etc.  I clearly observed that the ARNI programme supported the stroke survivors in various ways including bringing together a group of survivors with many similar issues, providing a forum for them to discuss some of these issues while providing a real sense of achievement from the exercises themselves. This rounded benefit is in my experience not being achieved by any of the other agencies which are unable to provide a sense of co-ordination.


Birgit has made great strides in her ability and confidence to perform “seemingly insignificant” (though important for her personally) activities including cooking for eight people at Christmas, looking after a 2 year old grandchild, carrying a vacuum cleaner down the stairs, etc.  All this is contributing to the possibility of us rebalancing our previously very full lives. Thank you for helping to bring back my wife of more than 40 years!  We both look forward to continuing the programme.