NeuroGym Sit-to-Stand Trainer

by Jeanne Seliskar, MA, CCC/SLP
Director of Rehabilitation
The GRAND of Dublin

With The GRAND’s focus on the best outcomes and discharge plans for our patients, the NeuroGym Sit-to-Stand Trainer has become an integral part of many of our therapy sessions at The GRAND.  With the action of coming to a fully upright standing posture being a significant  factor in returning  home, it is essential that this part of a patient’s mobility be prioritized and addressed effectively to achieve a functional level.

The NeuroGym Sit-Stand Trainer uses a counter-weight mechanism to provide a safe and effective way to strengthen weight-bearing muscles and increase standing stability and endurance.  Unlike other tools that passively lift people to, or maintain them in, a standing position, the Sit-to-Stand Trainer enables an individual to actively initiate the motion of standing up, even with weakened or seemingly unsuccessful efforts.  Through continued training and gradually reducing the counter-weight, a patient can relearn the skill for standing up.  Equipped with a weight-stack and a locking pulley system, the counter-weight can be easily applied to the Sit-to-Stand Trainer.  Because it is mounted on wheels, early steps can be attempted in all directions.

The Key Benefits of this equipment are:  1) early weight bearing and active mobilization at the hips and knees; 2) improvement of standing balance and stability; 3) Significant improvement of transfers; 4) improvement of patient rehabilitation with reduced physical strain to the therapist.

The GRAND is using this equipment routinely in many case to progress patients who would otherwise not ever leave the wheelchair to stand and walk leading to a significantly improved quality of life.