Self-Care Day/Independent Living Experience

The Self-Care Day is designed to refine the patients' ability to care for themselves. With the assistance of the rehabilitation team, the patient and family design a day-long schedule of activities on the clinical unit to help them determine which activities can be done independently, with the assistance of another person, or with adaptive devices. The activities vary and are structured to meet the needs of individual parents.

The Independent Living Experience provides the patient and a family member the opportunity to live, unassisted, in a specially designed, wheelchair and walker accessible apartment: Rusk's Horizon House. The "experience," scheduled during the day, evening, or overnight hours, allows patients to evaluate whether they are ready for discharge and are better able to handle daily living activities.