Burke Rehabilitation announced it has been awarded three separate grants to improve the quality of patient care and enhance the lives of people living with a spinal cord injury (SCI). The grants complement Burke’s multidisciplinary approach to rehabilitative medicine. Each grant focuses on a specific patient need with the goal of improving outcomes. 

Burke Rehabilitation was awarded $25,000 from the Christopher & Dana Reeve Foundation’s Direct Effect Quality of Life grant for the Burke Everything Else Education Program (BEEEP). This award will support BEEEP from July 2022 through June 2023. The goal of BEEEP is to enhance the lives and well-being of persons living with SCI by providing education on topics that are not formally taught in healthcare settings but are vitally important for this population to achieve independence and community integration. 

Burke’s Spinal Cord Injury Medicine specialist Shelly Hsieh, MD, Director of Inpatient SCI Program Elizabeth Dominick PT, DPT, and Director of Therapeutic Recreation Eileen Andreassi, MA, CTRS, work with community partners and organizations to educate participants.

The Thomas and Agnes Carvel Foundation renewed its commitment to Burke Rehabilitation with the award of a $50,000 grant to continue and expand the Neurologic Music Therapy (NMT) Program in partnership with MedRhythms, Inc. The Thomas and Agnes Carvel Foundation awarded the initial grant in 2021. Through the renewed commitment and the support of additional NMT donors, including a grant from the State of New York, Burke is expanding the NMT services to five days each week. 

NMT is an evidence-based treatment model that uses standardized, research-based techniques to treat the brain using specific elements of music such as rhythm, melody, dynamics and tempo. Burke’s Neurologic Music Therapist Vanessa Moran pairs with Physical, Occupational, or Speech therapists to augment their sessions and aims to increase the efficacy of their interventions. 

The Will Rogers Institute demonstrated its commitment to Burke Rehabilitation Hospital with the renewal of its $20,000 annual grant to support pulmonary education and research. For the past 45 years, The Will Rogers Institute has partnered with Burke by awarding this grant. As a result of this year’s generous donation, Burke will embark on a new clinical trial commencing in 2023 to impact patients’ recovery and rehabilitation.  

The foundation is named after, and is a testament to, vaudevillian actor Will Rogers. From its inception in the 1920’s as a lodge for entertainers with tuberculous, the Will Rogers Institute has focused on educating the community and promoting research into pulmonary diseases. 

Burke Rehabilitation is a not-for-profit healthcare organization devoted solely to acute physical rehabilitation. Its main campus is located in White Plains, NY. Founded in 1915 through an endowment from philanthropist John Masterson Burke, it has been a member of the Montefiore Health System since 2016. Burke operates the only hospital in Westchester County dedicated solely to adult and adolescent rehabilitation medicine. Burke also offers therapeutic care in locations throughout Westchester County, the Hudson Valley, and the Bronx for those who have experienced injuries, surgery, or chronic conditions, from the simple to the very complex. For additional information, please visit www.burke.org