Karey McDowell, MS, CTRS, CPT, supervisor of the Community Fitness and Wellness program, worked with a patient on his trunk control and core stability.
By Phyllis Shaikun
Over the last 10 years, Frazier Rehab Institute’s Jill Farmer, manager of therapeutic recreation and adaptive sport programs, and Karey McDowell, supervisor of community fitness and wellness, have been the dynamic duo instrumental in shaping Frazier’s programs in Louisville, especially those focused on training athletes with disabilities. Farmer is McDowell’s boss, and the two work together to benefit the many individuals who have sought their help to attain their full potential. Athletes come in many forms and sizes and participate in a wide variety of sports and leisure-time activities. Athletes with disabilities do as well, but they often have to work harder to achieve and require more support than their able-bodied peers. The
lucky ones have their champions, unsung heroes who spend hours of their professional and personal time helping them maximize their abilities. Farmer and McDowell are two of those life-enhancers. Farmer, a clinical therapist, has some 25 years of experience working in the fields of recreation therapy, wellness and disability. She knows that disabled athletes need a supportive and nurturing environment to succeed and she has ensured that Frazier is up to the task. “Other venues just don’t understand how to help them,” she said. She approached Dr. Susan Harkema seven years ago and was able to assist her in establishing Frazier as the lead center in the Christopher & Dana Reeve Foundation’s NeuroRecovery Network (NRN). The NRN is funded by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention through an
agreement with the Reeve Foundation and has the ultimate goal of retraining patients living with spinal cord injury and other neurological disorders to stand and walk again. McDowell, who has been working at Frazier since graduating from Eastern Kentucky University nine years ago, helped Harkema develop the Community Fitness and Wellness (CFW) NRN facility at Frazier and implemented four other CFW facilities in Minneapolis, Minnesota; South Jordan, Utah; Los Angeles, California; and Willow Springs, Illinois. She is now part of the NRN leadership team for the CFW, a cooperative network of cutting-edge rehab centers designed to provide and develop activity-based therapies that promote functional recovery and improve patients’ overall health and quality of life. Farmer and McDowell agree there have been huge changes recently as discoveries in medical research are now able to move directly from the workbench to the rehab world. “Victims of spinal cord injury and stroke used to think life was over after their injury,” Farmer noted, “but Frazier has been able to give them their lives back.” She and McDowell began a stroke survivor program that includes a nutritional component along with endurance training to help reduce issues stemming from high blood pressure and diabetes. The program also takes participants off-campus to malls and other community settings so they have the opportunity to practice life skills prior to returning to their home and community. McDowell has been into running and exercising for most of her life, and was anxious to develop a wellness program at Frazier to help patients stay active and healthy once they return home. “It is difficult for Jill and me,” she said, “to see former patients who have gained weight or lost function because they lacked resources in the community. It is critical for them to have the opportunity to work out and stay fit after their therapy is over. Everyone should have the option for exercise.”
cord injury and stroke used to think life was over after but Frazier has been able to give them their lives back.” Summer 2013 common thread
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