Whatever your rehabilitation needs, St. Mary's services are designed to treat patients of all ages and help you continue your healthy lifestyle. With a full team of experts including physicians, nurses, physical therapists, occupational therapists, speech pathologists, audiologists and cardiac rehabilitators, we're here to help you with your individual needs.

Physical Therapy
If you've been injured or have had a disease that has impaired you, our physical therapists will work with you to regain your function and independence. It's good to know we're the only local facility that follows your care from the hospital and works with you at home or in an outpatient setting. We also offer services in injury prevention and pain relief. Through physical therapy we can help you gain overall strength, relieve pain, retain motion and coordination and regain the functionality of injured areas.

Incontinence Treatment
This program is designed to treat individuals with bowel or bladder incontinence. This short-term therapy uses biofeedback, a home exercise program, and recommended lifestyle changes to assist the patient in regaining the use of the muscles involved in bowel and bladder control.

Aquatic Physical Therapy
Water is an inviting environment for exercise because it decreases stress on joints, helps movement, supports the body and assists with relaxation. For this reason, aquatic therapy is a treatment option that may benefit a variety of patients. In aquatic therapy, we combine physical therapy techniques with the benefits of exercise in water. A therapist can assist a patient with stretching, strengthening, and increasing mobility in water by performing either hands-on therapy or supervised exercise.

St. Mary's offers aquatic physical therapy at the Streator YMCA. A physical therapist works with the patient one-on-one to provide an individualized treatment plan to help the patient achieve his or her goals.

For more information on any of these services or to set up an appointment, please call St. Mary's Physical Therapy Department at (815) 673-4549.

Occupational Therapy
St. Mary’s Occupational Therapy team specializes in injuries to the finger, hand, wrist and elbow. Many rehabilitation clinics in the area are not staffed for occupational therapy. They can offer only physical therapy services to their patients. However, there are important differences between the two disciplines. For optimum recovery following an injury to an upper extremity, patients should choose occupational therapy.

In addition to injuries, the Occupational Therapy team can offer assistance to patients coping with arthritis, recovering from a stroke or other health problems. Along with therapy, we provide assistive devices and give instruction on how to use them. We’ll help you function in a wheelchair. We also offer the area’s only sensory integration therapy program for children.

Therapeutic Massage
Massage is not just a great way to relax; it also offers a wide variety of health benefits. In Therapeutic Massage, trained professionals use touch for relief of pain and stress, as well as overall well-being. It can stimulate the nervous system, endocrine system, circulatory system and different chemicals in the body. Massage techniques help to normalize the body's connective tissue and circulate body fluids.

Massage has proven to have a variety of health-related benefits, including:

• Reducing anxiety and depression

• Alleviating chronic pain and discomfort

• Reducing daily stress

• Facilitating growth

• Improving immune function

• Increasing attentiveness

• Lowering blood pressure

• Assisting effective digestion and breathing

• Increasing range of motion

Our occupational therapy department offers full body massage and seated chair massage. In seated massage, the patient remains fully clothed while the therapist focuses massage on the neck, arms, shoulder and back.

Lymphedema Therapy
Yet another service offered by our occupational therapy department is lymphedema therapy. Presently, there is no cure for lymphedema, but our staff can help you effectively manage your condition through clinical treatment, education and efforts at home.

To help manage lymphedema, we offer Complete Decongestive Therapy. The components of this treatment are:

• Manual lymph drainage

• Compression bandaging

• Skin care

• Exercise

• Compression garment fitting

• Self massage training

For further information on occupational therapy, therapeutic massage or lymphedema therapy or to make an appointment, call St. Mary's Occupational Therapy Department at (815) 673-4566.

Speech Pathology/Audiology
We know how frustrating it can be to lose the ability to communicate due to hearing loss and speech problems. Our diagnostic and rehabilitative services in speech pathology and audiology can restore those skills. Our caring professionals will provide you with the help you need to regain these valuable functions.

Certified Speech Pathologists are able to evaluate and treat concerns related to speech, language and cognitive skills. This also includes swallowing difficulties for which we provide both clinical and radiographic evaluations.

Our Audiologists are able to evaluate hearing ability and middle ear status, as well as assist in the management of hearing loss after it has been identified. Amplification devices, such as hearing aids, can be provided to those who may benefit. We offer training and counseling on hearing aid use, repair of all hearing aid makes and models, as well as the latest in hearing aid technology. As part of our industrial rehabilitation program, industrial hearing screenings and sound mapping are available.

Industrial Rehabilitation
Maybe you've had a work-related injury you can't seem to overcome. Our staff of rehabilitation specialists will work with you on body mechanics, injury prevention and job safety. Some of the features of our industrial rehabilitation program include:

Ergonomic Evaluation
This will identify causative factors that could result in or are contributing to work-related injuries.

Post-Offer Job Screening
An assessment of a person's capabilities to perform the physical duties of a job based on the job description.

Work Reconditioning
A program designed to assist the injured employee in returning to work in a timely and cost-efficient manner.

Functional Capacity Exam
This is used to determine if the post-injury worker can perform the primary physical demands of a job.

Cardiac Rehabilitation
If you've had a heart attack, open-heart surgery, or are at risk, you'll benefit from our Cardiac Rehabilitation and Fitness Program. Our trained team will design an individualized exercise program to fit your lifestyle. As the area's largest cardiac rehab program, we offer more than 30 pieces of the most advanced exercise equipment. We take your health to heart.

Pediatric Treatment
Pediatric Therapy specializes in helping children gain self-care skills; increase arm, leg and trunk use; increase coordination and improve handwriting. Sensory integration treatment is also available. We also treat infants with oral motor/feeding difficulty; children who have difficulty in language development or who are difficult to understand; and children who experience stuttering. Through our Early Intervention program, we are able to provide rehabilitation services to children ages 0 to 35 months.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the difference between Occupational Therapy and Physical Therapy?
Both occupational and physical therapy treatment are focused on restoring range of motion, strength, and/or coordination, as well as decreasing pain in order to improve skills needed for day-to-day tasks.

Occupational Therapy focuses on upper extremity injuries and daily living skills. The focus of physical therapy is the treatment of the trunk, shoulders, and lower extremities.

What information do I need to know before beginning rehabilitation treatment at St. Mary's?
You will need a physician referral with a diagnosis for your initial session, as well as for every month thereafter.

Your first appointment is generally scheduled for one hour and consists of an evaluation and treatment.

Your therapist will discuss with you how often therapy will occur, how long each session will last and what treatment techniques will be used. A treatment session may last from 30-60 minutes and is generally 2-3 times per week.

Please wear comfortable clothing and supportive shoes that will allow you to perform exercises. Gowns are available for Physical and Occupational Therapy patients.

For Physical and Occupational Therapy patients, you may experience pain and soreness after treatment. Please speak with you therapist if this occurs, so this may be addressed.

For patients with private insurance, please contact your insurance company to find out you benefits. Each policy is different.

For optimal results, please perform your exercises and follow the recommendations of your therapist at all times.

How do I make an appointment with the rehabilitation department?
Physical and Occupational Therapy office hours are 7 a.m.-5:30 p.m. weekdays. Voicemail is available 24 hours a day. Please call us at (815) 673-4549.

Office hours for the Speech and Hearing Department are 8 a.m.-4:30 p.m. Voicemail is also available 24 hours a day. Please call us at (815) 673-4559.

What if I need to cancel my appointment?
Please call to cancel appointments by either talking to us or leaving a message on the voice mail with the reason for canceling. We will document this in your chart.

Your therapy schedule is intended to provide you with the maximum benefits of treatment. Therefore, it is important to keep your appointments. If you miss three scheduled sessions without cancellation, we must discharge you from services, and you will need a new order to reinitiate services.

What is lymphedema?
Lymphedema is a condition resulting in swelling of one or more limbs and often the trunk. This swelling is caused by the accumulation of protein-rich edema fluid in tissue due to a blockage in the lymph or venous system. This chronic disorder tends to be progressive in nature, placing one at risk for a grossly enlarged limb and skin infections.

What can cause lymphedema?
Lymphedema may occur following some surgeries, trauma and disease to the lymph system. Occasionally, it is due to an absence or malformation of the lymphatic system at birth. Lymphedema may result from breast, prostate, pelvic or skin cancer surgery with lymph node removal, cardiac bypass surgery with vein graft harvest or venous insufficiency.