Better Hearing and Speech Month is a great time to recognize Speech and Language Pathologists like Beth Brookens who make a big difference in the lives of our patients recovering from brain and spinal cord injury.  Here's what one former patient had to say about how Beth changed her life.

" I suffered a mild brain injury in an automobile accident. My vision, speech, and memory were affected. My physician recommended speech and vision therapy, I put it off as long as possible. I had done a pretty good job hiding my deficits for almost a year. Going to therapy to me was admitting I still had issues. It sounds silly now, but I had a difficult time accepting that I had a brain injury. Before my accident, I worked a professional job as a nurse manager, managed my family, maintained a home, and was very invol...

Special Tree is excited to announce the recipients of their Healthcare and Rehabilitation Scholarship for 2019.  Each of the 13 recipients was awarded a $1000 scholarship to pursue their education in a health-related field.

This year, Special Tree awarded cash scholarships totaling $13,000 to high school graduating seniors from Michigan school districts in communities where Special Tree has a rehabilitation facility. Since 1995, Special Tree has contributed $150,000 to 175 Michigan students as part of their annual scholarship program.

Students receiving Special Tree’s 2019 Healthcare and Rehabilitation Scholarships are:

Downriver Area

• Elizabeth Jensen, a graduating senior from Flat Rock High School, who will attend Michigan State Univers...

Recognizing the need to address vision limitations after brain injury, Special Tree screens for vision problems with every patient.

After three separate eye surgeries to repair detached retinas, resulting in 75 days total spent face-down to recover fully, Special Tree CEO Joseph Richert knows first-hand how powerful vision can be in everyday functioning.

That’s one reason he is passionate about evaluating all patients with brain injury for vision challenges when they first come to Special Tree. Another is simply the good sense it makes to screen patients for impaired vision at the outset; something that is often overlooked and which can have a tremendous impact on rehabilitation and recovery.

“About 70 percent of your sensory nerve fibers are vision, just vision,” says Dr. Danna Haba,...

Virtual Reality isn’t just for gamers. For therapists like Courtney Fankhauser, Certified Recreational Specialist at Special Tree, it’s a fantastic tool to motivate patients recovering from traumatic brain injury.

“We appreciate the immersive experience VR offers patients,” shares Fankhauser, “And that it allows us to follow their progress.”

In virtual reality, or “VR”, patients interact with 3-D, computer-generated environments to experience activities like baseball, travel, mountain climbing and more. Therapists are able to watch what patients are doing in real time via monitor, then store data from their sessions to track trends over time.

At Special Tree, virtual reality has provided a powerful method to engage patients in the rehabilitation process.

“One of our patients, Josh, uses vir...