Project Walk Provider and Training Summit
October 19-23, 2009
This training summit will take place the week before the 2009 Steps event. Having representatives from four Providers this year demonstrated the potential of having October 2009 as a Provider Training Month. Sending your staff for continuing education or their initial education during this time will only increase their knowledge by being surrounded by other trainers from different centers sharing ideas and working together. It also increases the knowledge of all the trainers involved with The Dardzinski Method™. We will work with our Providers and individual Certification professionals throughout the year to attend this training summit.
We will provide information about the summit after the New Year, but the date is set. We hope to see at least one representative from each Provider center during the week.
New Website -- Launch Date, January 2009
The template is completed, now we have to add content. Please let us know how you like it.
Client Spotlight
The three year journey for Keith-Ann and Chad Steed came to a successful end in September. Keith-Ann, a
C6/C7 incomplete injury, and her husband Chad, relocated to Carlsbad to give her a chance for regaining function with a goal of walking independently. In the years she was with us, Keith-Ann followed guidelines for success. She worked full-time and Chad worked at Project Walk as a full-time aide before becoming a Specialist. Together they had a realistic plan, and in September as they headed to Austin, Texas, Chad was a Certified Level One Specialist and Keith-Ann was taking steps without help!
The next step for the Steed’s was to bring The Dardzinski Method™ to Texas. In order to achieve this, they decided to create a community based nonprofit, Roll 2 Walk, and work with Project Walk as a Provider center.
During the last week of her training, Keith-Ann walked better than ever. Chad and Keith-Ann are very special people and we know that Roll 2 Walk will be a great reflection of their commitment to each other and the SCI community.
For more information on Roll 2 Walk, visit www.roll2walk.org
Project Walk Institute of SCI Recovery
In September, Eric Harness, Director of Research and Development, was accepted as an Associate Member of ISCoS (International Spinal Cord Society).
On October 9-10, Eric traveled to Pismo Beach, CA to speak at the Annual SCI Research Advancement fundraising dinner. He spoke on the current advances in exercise based training for spinal cord injury. The following day he rode with our client, Chris Blais, in his first race after a SCI, see the video here:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z5yd26tFzE8. The race was part of the 2008 Oceano Beach Race and Festival, all of the proceeds from this event go to support SCI research. On October 11, Eric presented at the Annual CAPED (California Association for Post Secondary Education for people with Disabilities) Conference in San Francisco, CA. There he discussed the Project Walk program, current research projects he is involved in, and how principles of the Project Walk program could be incorporated into their adapted PE programs. On November 7, Eric flew to Brisbane, Australia to visit our Certified Provider, Walk On. He was there for two weeks to continue the training of the staff at Walk On. Also while there, he met with the leaders of Spinal Cord Injuries Australia,www.scia.org.au, the main force behind cure/care research in Australia and a member of ICORD. They discussed the future expansion of Walk On to other cities in Australia.
The research paper that Eric had accepted into the journal, “Spinal Cord”, was put into print this month and was selected as a featured article on the journal's website,http://www.nature.com/sc/index.html. He is currently working with his research partners, Steve Cramer M.D. (University of California, Irvine) and Nuray Yozbatiran Ph.D. (University of Texas, Houston) to finish a second paper from the same study. He is also currently working with Todd Astornio Ph.D. (California State University, San Marcos) on two research projects, one involving substrate use in SCI during multimodal exercise and another tracking bone density changes in SCI from multimodal exercise. Eric and Dr. Astorino have also recently had a paper accepted into the Journal of Spinal Cord Medicine (not yet in print) and have submitted another paper for publication.
