Warriors’ Gateway: Care for people with TBI

“. . . to care for him who shall have borne the battle . . . ”—Abraham Lincoln

Transitional Living Services, a 501 (c) 3 not-for-profit corporation formed in 1996 by veterans to help veterans, is developing and building Warriors’ Gateway, a care center for all people with traumatic brain injury that will focus on serving disabled veterans from the Iraq and Afghanistan Wars. TBI is has been labeled the signature wound of our current conflicts.
The facility is to be built Rockford, IL. It will primarily serve patients who no longer require acute hospitalization but need occupational rehabilitation focusing on community re-entry.To that end, Warriors’ Gateway will combine a treatment regime typically associated with a rehabilitation hospital and the daily nursing care associated with a residential facility. Construction is expected to begin by early next year.

Services:

Plans are for 120 skilled-nursing beds. Residents will have the option to move into one of 85 supportive-living apartments as they advance toward independence. Services will include but will not be limited to:

• Occupational, physical, recreational and speech therapy
• Cognitive rehabilitation
• Respiratory therapy
• Social work
• Treatment for Post Traumatic Stress Disorder
• Medical and psychiatric care
• Family counseling

Unique components:

• A long-term rehabilitation program that will focus on veterans and their specialized needs
• Supportive-living units to be part of the facility
• Focus on returning residents to their communities—not a geriatric home
• Contiguous to a proposed  VA Community-Based Outpatient Clinic