Paramedic with a kinesiology background helps Brant-Brantford residents regain strength and mobility

“Hey, I have an idea,” Brant-Brantford paramedic Jessica Rattle posed to her supervisor after returning from a ride-along aimed at preventing falls.

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The service responds to calls where people aren’t injured but have fallen and can’t get back up “all the time,” Rattle told The Spectator.

As a licensed kinesiologist, Rattle thought that by giving at-risk folks personalized exercises to build their strength and mobility, she could help prevent future calls while making people safer and more independent in their homes.

With community paramedicine, each service is given way to add programs that fill gaps in their own communities and help take the strain off 911 and the health-care system.

Rattle’s supervisors encouraged her to run with her idea, and now — in addition to responding to 911 calls and working shifts within the broader community paramedicine program — she works one to two shifts a week on her specialized program, which the service believes might be the only one of its kind in Ontario.

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Beyond fall prevention, it helps folks regain independence.

Some clients want to be able to safely get in and out of bed again, or hold a spoon or fork to feed themselves. Others are housebound and long to walk to a neighbor’s house for a visit.

After consulting with a client’s family physician, Rattle starts with functional testing using a variety of tools to check grip, pinch, push, and pull strength, as well as flexibility.

To measure dexterity, Jessica Rattle may ask clients to move everyday objects like a paper clip from one side of a board to the other. She also tasks them with using a spoon to put the small objects into a containers.

It helps her and the client understand their starting point, which Rattle can use to measure progress, because each client is only measured against themselves.

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Rattle wants to know if they can bathe themselves? Get dressed on their own? With or without pain? Are they cooking?

“It’s basically about finding what their specific weaknesses are. Everyone’s are slightly different, and then we target those with the exercises and stretches,” she explained.

Rattle puts together a personalized exercise plan that relates to a client’s body weight and simple tools like rehab putty, foam balls, resistance bands, and household items like tea towels.

The program “removes a whole lot of barriers” for people because it takes place in the client’s home, is free to participate in, and everything they need is provided or already in their space, Rattle said.

In the year since the program started, most of Rattle’s clients have been seniors. Some are living with Parkinson’s disease, or are recovering from strokes or surgery. Others know they’re at risk for falls and want to get their balance and strength back.

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For whatever reason, all are looking to try and make some changes — which aren’t necessarily going to be quick.

But because of the testing, Rattle can regularly show clients they are making progress — sometimes even before they recognize it.

The challenge is finding people who are a fit for the program. Anyone can refer themselves or a family member, and doctors often put forward patients. But not everyone has the “motivation or desire” for life changes, Rattle said.

And while not everyone who signs up sticks with the program, all of those who do have met their goals, Rattle said.

One woman with severe COPD struggled with lifting her portable oxygen tank, which meant she couldn’t easily leave the house. She found sweaters and necklaces too heavy. Bending over to pick something off the floor put her at risk for falling.

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In less than eight months, she has built up her strength to the point she can lift a case of pop into her fridge. She went from being let go from her job and stuck in her home, to working 40 hours a week, and her doctors are looking at weaning her off the oxygen, Rattle said.

Another client had weakness on one side of his body, and used a wheelchair following a stroke. He has already made “huge improvements” through their work together, and a couple weeks ago, he took his first steps — something that was “amazing” for Rattle to witness.

Not everyone’s growth will be so dramatic, but the point is to “fill in the gaps to try and keep people moving forward,” she said.

Celeste Percy-Beauregard is a Local Journalism Initiative Reporter based at the Hamilton Spectator. The initiative is funded by the Government of Canada.

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