Lancaster General Health offers cancer rehabilitation services designed to assist patients with cancer before, during and after treatment. The focus of our program is to maximize quality of life from cancer diagnosis to cancer survivorship.
Cancer and its treatment may cause a variety of conditions ranging from reduced mobility, fatigue and impaired balance, to lymphedema, amputation challenges, wounds and swallowing difficulties.
Registered nurse and social work case managers are available to help navigate patients and families through treatment when a rehab program may require numerous services from a multi-disciplinary team.
Conditions Treated
Depending on the need, rehabilitation services could include patient education before treatment, restoring function after surgery, conditioning and energy conservation during treatment, or cardiovascular training and strengthening after treatment. For example:
- Mobility problems due to weakness, loss of motion or fatigue
- Difficulty performing activities of daily living (ADL), such as bathing and dressing
- Poor balance from nerve damage or other conditions related to cancer
- Lymphedema
- Fatigue/loss of energy
- Gait training after amputation
- Difficulty swallowing or speaking
Our Services
We offer a full spectrum of physical, occupational and speech-language therapy services to support our patients’ health and enhance their quality of life, from the time of diagnosis through cancer treatment and survivorship. Depending on the cancer type, stage and location, rehabilitation may be needed before, during or after treatment.
Therapy is tailored to the patient’s need, based on type of cancer, stage and location. Nurse navigators and social work case managers can help coordinate rehabilitation services from a multi-disciplinary team. We offer rehabilitation services in the hospital and at several outpatient centers. We also offer in-home services through Affilia Home Health.
Our rehabilitative services include:
- ADL (activities of daily living) training
- Hand therapy
- Orthotic/splint fabrication
- Adaptive device training
- Transfer training
- Energy conservation
- Seating and environmental adaptations
- Driving safety evaluation
- Home assessment/management
- Vision therapy
- Functional cognition and compensatory strategies for “chemobrain” and memory improvement
- Musculoskeletal evaluation
- Amputee rehab
- Foot orthotics
- Individualized exercise program
- Myofascial release
- Balance/coordination
- Falls prevention
- Energy conservation
- Neurological rehab
- Lymphedema management
- Pelvic floor strengthening
- Work conditioning/hardening
- Osteoporosis program
- Vestibular rehab
- Assistance with use of dilator or pelvic muscle tightness
- Use of biofeedback to improve pelvic muscle control
- Oral and sensory evaluation
- Voice analysis
- Swallowing evaluation
- Speech evaluation
- Videofluoroscopic studies
- Oral motor exercises
- Swallow exercises
- Diet modification recommendations
- VitalStim® therapy
- Oral and vocal hygiene
- Dry mouth management
- Jaw tightness management
- Augmentative communication
- Laryngectomy rehab
- Voice rehab
LIVESTRONG Program for Cancer Survivors
LIVESTRONG, an evidence-based exercise program for cancer survivors is available at the Lampeter-Strasburg and Lancaster YMCAs The free, 12-week program (two 90-minute sessions per week) assists people living with, through or beyond cancer to regain strength and connect with other cancer survivors. It includes cardiovascular conditioning , strength training, balance and flexibility exercises. A referral and medical clearance from a health-care provider is required to participate.