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videoconference without having to go to the rehab center at all. Some centers will send a client home with a camera and connections needed for teleconferencing in order to help manage the reentry process, to answer questions as they come up, or to assist with the continuing process of home modification.
    Diagnostics can also be performed in situations such as the appearance of a pressure sore. Clearly it is far more effective to be able to see someone’s home or skin or posture in a wheelchair to help resolve such issues. This is likely to be a dramatically emerging and more common technology, although some people have had difficulty being comfortable using it.
    Too Far from Home
     
    An appropriate rehab program might not exist within range of where you live. Many people travel to major regional rehab centers, such as Craig Hospital in Denver or Shepherd Center in Atlanta. The inevitable discharge from the inpatient facility to a location too far away for a day program means that a primary focus of the inpatient rehab plan should be the design of a great home rehab program.
    Community-based rehab has arisen from the short-stay issue, personified by Rehab Without Walls, a service of Gentiva Health Services, Inc. A rehab team, including many of the same types of therapists who work at the inpatient and outpatient centers, designs a continuing rehab program that can be performed at home and in the community. A therapist will visit and identify activities that can be performed in the home, as well as at a local facility, such as a local health club or university athletic center.
    Simulating What You’ll Go Home To
     
    An increasingly common feature found at rehab centers is an apartment unit where one can spend a few nights—potentially with a family member or spouse—to closer approximate some of the issues that will arise once home. Usually very basic—with a bedroom, bathroom, living room, and kitchen— an on-site apartment is where you can regain control of how you spend your own time, prepare your own meals, choose your bedtime, get in and out of a regular bed instead of a hospital bed, and so on. There is still the security of rehab staff being at hand if needed, with emergency pull cords at hand.
    Some larger centers have a separate building where someone approaching release from an inpatient facility can spend weeks. Family members can spend a significant time getting trained in what kinds of assistance they might be providing—or helping to train a hired assistant to perform.
    On the Street Where You Live
     
    Rehab is a very controlled environment. Everything is accessible, the floors are smooth and level, doors are wide, and so many of the elements of a daily life—from the ATM machine to bank or hotel counters that are above eye level—are completely nonexistent.
    Some rehab centers have built areas that specifically simulate these elements. During the inpatient stay, it is possible to encounter common obstacles and conditions of the outside world, with the consultation of therapists and experienced chair users on hand to improve skills before discharge from the program.
    Magee Rehab in Philadelphia has built such a resource on the roof of their building—which means that those who are inpatient at the facility during the winter get the extra gift of dealing with snow and slush before going home! It includes typical sidewalks—where joints are commonly raised up by tree roots—and the kind of not-so-smooth-and-level surfaces one might encounter at a door or near a parking space.
    Adaptive Technology
     
    Technology has made a tremendous contribution to the range of options for people with disabilities, especially for persons with more significant disabilities such as high quadriplegia. As these technologies have become more advanced, smaller, lighter, and less expensive, rehab centers have been able to equip themselves with training rooms where clients can be exposed to options, be assessed for what works