Winning Wheels comes up with a winning formula

A young adult suffers a life-altering brain or spinal cord injury. Perhaps it was caused by a motor vehicle or motorcycle crash, or a bicycle or pedestrian accident. Maybe the individual suffered a fall, experienced a stroke, or was struck on the head.

Whatever, the result is a young person in a wheelchair whose body doesn’t work the same anymore.

What would the best way be to treat such brain-injured young adults?

Ideally, you would want to create a place where caring rehabilitative experts could provide comprehensive care, combined with an independent living facility where the young adults could stay while receiving that care.

You would want that facility to help all clients reach their maximum level of physical, social and emotional function, so they could once more live meaningful lives.

Tall order, huh?

Fortunately, such a place already exists. It’s in the Sauk Valley, and it’s celebrating 30 years of helping neurologically impaired young adults achieve their fullest potential.

We speak of Winning Wheels Comprehensive Rehab in Prophetstown.

Located on a 12-acre wooded campus on East Third Street, Winning Wheels has been helping brain-injured clients learn to live as independently as possible since 1979.

How do they do it?

Winning Wheels has assembled specialists who provide physical, occupational, speech, respiratory and recreational therapy, along with others who work in personal care, vocational rehabilitation, dietary and social services.

Depending on a client’s needs, an interdisciplinary treatment team is assembled and, under the direction of a physician specialist, provides individualized treatment. A client’s progress is measured, and the efforts are adjusted to focus on areas where more help is needed.

The result is a client who has developed the functional skills needed for everyday living, perhaps with the help of community-based support services back home.

With a 30-year track record, Winning Wheels is recognized as an innovator in the field of rehabilitation. Its award-winning programs have won accreditation by the Commission on Accreditation of Rehabilitation Facilities.

The facility’s leaders are not content with treatment alone. They also want to help prevent brain injuries. That’s why, in partnership with the Prophetstown Police Department, Winning Wheels sponsors a bike safety rodeo and fun fair each spring, where free bike helmets are given to youngsters.