Cheshire Home’s Rise & Walk - Improving the Lives of Our Residents

Florham Park, NJ - Cheshire Home’s Physical & Occupational Therapy Department is excited to announce that our Rise & Walk machine has arrived! Cheshire Home is the only facility in the region to have the Rise & Walk or anything like it. When a young person experiences a traumatic spinal cord injury, nothing about the life they knew will ever be the same.

To be able to give our residents the experience of walking again is an exciting moment. The Rise & Walk machine has the possibility to completely change the lives of our residents, restore their hope for the future, and provide motivation in their daily lives as they work towards their goals. It is true cutting-edge science.

The Rise & Walk works via a harness that suspends an individual in the air, just enough to get each foot into the machine's footplates. Each arm is given a handle, and the person's arms and legs are moved via the machine, simulating the arm-swinging and leg motion of walking. The Rise & Walk helps individuals who cannot walk, get up on their feet in a dynamic way to practice these motions.

Cheshire Home opened in 1981 and since then, over 250 young people with debilitating, life-long disabilities have come through our doors. Cheshire Home provides a communal residence geared towards this population, providing hope, and changing the landscape for what our residents can achieve in the rest of their lives. Cheshire Home is not meant to be a long-term, permanent residence; instead, our goal is to discharge all residents to independent living and community re-integration.

“The rise and walk will definitely alter the trajectory of our outcomes in the therapy department,” Cheshire Home Lead Physical Therapist, Bethany Greenfield, PT, DPT stated. “It’s a cutting-edge piece of equipment that is so versatile and has the potential to train and improve residents at varying levels of functional ability. We’re really excited to implement it regularly into our programs.”

Our residents want to experience the feeling of walking again and using the Rise & Walk to get this sensation will greatly improve their emotional well-being. The Rise & Walk also helps with trunk control, range of motion, increased blood flow,
improved bone health for our many residents with osteoporosis, reduced muscle atrophy and cardio-pulmonary endurance.

Cheshire Home’s mission focuses on allowing each resident to reach their maximum level of independence and the Rise & Walk machine will now play a large role in helping our residents graduate out of Cheshire Home and back into the community. Having the Rise & Walk at Cheshire Home will help shift the mindset of our residents, allowing them to set new goals for their physical and occupational therapy regimen, as well as overall health and wellness.

Cheshire Home’s Physical and Occupational Therapy Department is proud to be on the cutting edge of technology. Our team of therapists follows the research in spinal cord injury and is informed on the latest and greatest technological advancements being made. The Rise & Walk is one of the many advancements that we are excited to provide for our residents.

For more information on our Cheshire Home’s Physical & Occupational Therapy Department, or the other services we offer at Cheshire Home, visit www.cheshirehome.org.