Reduce disabilities
Prevent patients from becoming disabled
Increase patient empowerment
Promote increased patient autonomy
Help patients resume their lifestyle and social roles
Help patients return home safely
Disabilities related to physical impairment can occur in various forms, including sensory, physical, motor, cognitive, psychological and social impairments. They can be hereditary, congenital or the result of an accident, medical condition or trauma.
Through referral, Institut Raymond-Dewar (IRD) receives hard-of-hearing and deaf-blind clients of all ages, as well as young people aged 0-21 with language impairments.
Access to services at IRD is free and voluntary. Services are confidential and provided in French and in Québec Sign Language (LSQ). If necessary, sign-language interpretation, oral interpretation, tactile sign language and ethnocultural services are provided free of charge.
IRD offers over 60% of all hearing impairment rehabilitation services in Québec. More than 8000 people are served and registered each year by teams providing programs and services.
Deaf, hard-of-hearing and deaf-blind clients, as well as those with a central hearing disorder, come from Laval and Montréal, while clients with dysphasia are exclusively from the Montréal region. The clientele is made up of Francophones, Allophones and people who use Québec Sign Language (LSQ) at home.
Hearing impairments can vary from mild hearing problems to total deafness, along with partial or severe blindness.
Information to better understand the world of the hard of hearing is available on the Centre québécois pour la déficience auditive and Audiosanté websites.
Hearing is not synonymous with understanding. Detecting sounds is the first step in a series of auditory mechanisms that are essential to understanding speech (e.g., Do I hear something?). The next step in the auditory process is recognizing and interpreting speech and background noise (e.g., Is the noise I hear an ambulance siren or a car horn?). Auditory processing disorder is the inability to correctly analyze and process sounds.
Dysphasia is a primary language disorder that leads to limitations in verbal expression (e.g., pronunciation, speech, sentence construction) or that affects oral language comprehension.
Motor impairment involves issues of mobility impairment of the upper and/or lower limbs from birth or following a trauma, accident or disease that requires adaptation, rehabilitation and social integration services, and may require the use of assistive devices.
Adult clientele with one or more physical impairments resulting from a disease, accident or other medical condition. Patients who have sustained a spinal cord injury, stroke or head trauma, or who have undergone an amputation or orthopaedic surgery (e.g., hip, knee) or have some other neurological disorder.
The assistive devices service designs, manufactures and repairs prostheses and orthoses, and offers a wheelchair adjustment and repair service.
An emergency assistance service helps people in manually operated or motorized wheelchairs who have become immobilized on the road, at work or at school as a result of a technical problem involving their wheelchair.
The highly specialized vestibular re-education clinic, which is part of Institut de réadaptation Gingras-Lindsay-de-Montréal (IRGLM) has gained an enviable reputation in its field of expertise.
Vestibular deficit disorders are conditions that are difficult to treat and that require specialized care. Professionals at the vestibular clinic help patients overcome vertigo and dizziness, and regain their balance.
The Centre de réadaptation Lucie-Bruneau (CRLB) facility has been part of the community for over 85 years.
Professionals at CRLB focus on the social and occupational reintegration of users. CRLB has gained recognition for its centre providing expertise in chronic pain management for patients with medullary injuries in Western Québec, its centre specializing in driving capacity assessments and its proven experience with regard to socioresidential resources. CRLB has developed such innovative treatment practices as Cirque social, dance therapy, Clinique Parent Plus and the use of rehabilitation dogs.