Plym Neuro Rehabilitation Unit (PNRU) served up an ace week for patients and staff alike last week by staging Plymbledon, a week-long table tennis tournament in honour of Wimbledon which naturally came complete with strawberries and cream, smoothies, scones and (non-alcoholic) Pimms!
PNRU provides intensive inpatient specialist rehabilitation for adults with acquired brain injuries, spinal cord injuries and other neurological conditions. They have a long-established tradition of celebrating big events on the unit, having in the past held the Plympic Games and the Tour de Plym, which help them to create an enriched environment on the unit while also accomplishing therapeutic goals.
Katie Stokes, Occupational Therapy Apprentice, organised this year’s Plymbledon with the help of the multi-disciplinary team.
Katie said: “Our Plymbledon tournament was organised for everyone on the ward to enjoy, to support with patient orientation to time and current events, as well as helping them to socialise. It also enables us to be creative with patients’ goals and avoid therapy sessions getting boring whilst working on repetitive movements. It can help to demonstrate to patients how much they can still engage in fun activities, despite their impairments, giving them a sense of achievement and normality.
“All patients have their personal goals to work towards whilst on the ward and we incorporated these into the game. For example, some patients played standing to work on their balance and endurance levels, while others used their impaired upper limb to help build strength and work on coordination. We also had patients working on visual tracking following the ball. Rehabilitation and therapy sessions should be fun and engaging.”
In December 2024, PNRU moved into a new, modernised space in Mount Gould Local Care Centre which Katie says has helped the team to hold events like these:
“Our previous garden was cramped and not level, making it difficult to do these types of events. The space we have now is great, and our spacious garden enables us to hold our regular therapy sessions in it too.”
The team exercised their creativity when it came to equipment, using their ‘high low’ table for the games when they couldn’t locate a table tennis table, but were also the grateful recipients of a kind donation of ping pong balls from their Amazon wishlist to help them play.
Katie said: “We really appreciate the donations which have been greatly enjoyed by all. We’ve had great feedback from our patients. They’ve really enjoyed themselves and been so supportive of each other. Some patients have been really dedicated to the event and showed up to support all the matches, cheering on others.
“Seeing the engagement and excitement from the patients is also a great morale boost for the team on Plym. We work in a fast-paced, highly demanding environment, and so putting on events like this helps bring us all together.”
