Gompers is now able to offer a wide range of essential therapies to our clients. Our therapists are Nationally certified and have met the approval of the Department of Developmental Disabilities.

Therapy is a vital ingredient in the overall effort to help every client reach their potential physically, mentally, and emotionally. Most people become familiar with therapy due to an injury or the presence of arthritis. For our clients however, therapy in each of the separate disciplines provides a carefully orchestrated provision of care that can have a lasting and positive impact on their entire well-being.

Occupational Therapy is skilled treatment that helps individuals achieve independence in all facets of their lives and assists people in developing the "skills for the job of living."  As a holistic profession, occupational therapy addresses the physical, psychosocial, leisure and hobby participation, social, emotional, and physiological effects of illness and injury and uses occupation as a means in the therapeutic relationship.  Areas of focus include developmental skills, self regulation and sensory needs, perpetual and sensory motor abilities, and functional living skills.

Speech Therapy addresses communication disorders in each of four areas: language, fluency (stuttering), voice, and articulation. It is a complicated therapy because it is not confined to speech but also includes proper breathing techniques, controlling one's saliva, swallowing of food and liquids, and the ability to communicate through any medium: gestures, sign language, facial expression, body language, augmentative communication devices, and words (oral language).

Physical Therapy helps that individual make the most of what he or she has to work with physically through adaptation of disability. Areas of focus include functional living skills as well as functional movement skills.

Recreational Therapy is a common thread that runs through the tapestry of all the other therapies. It brings together the value of the other therapies as our clients engage in activities that involve social interaction, physical movement, mental challenges, and the ability to learn to interrelate with others in a particular setting, whether that be in our warm-water pool, our indoor basketball court, or fitness center.

Our Behavioral Specialist also works hand in hand with all the other therapies in identifying and addressing the reasons why certain behaviors take place and helping clients to understand the behavior. For those needing very special attention, understanding individual behaviors can mean a client will be able to comprehend the impact that particular behavior may have both on themselves and others, either negative or positive.

Gompers Center is pleased to offer all of these therapies, which benefit our clients immensely. Please contact the Aquatic/Recreational Director for more information at 602-336-0061.