The Neu­ro Vital­i­ty Cen­ter is expand­ing its facil­i­ties and its ser­vices, thanks, in part, to a grant from the Auen Foun­da­tion. The fam­i­ly foun­da­tion, which pri­mar­i­ly sup­ports char­i­ta­ble pro­grams and ser­vices aimed at meet­ing the social needs of mature adults and their fam­i­lies, pre­sent­ed the non­prof­it orga­ni­zaiton with a $30,000 grant to help open the Luhr & Clarise Jensen Exer­cise Ther­a­py Facil­i­ty. This addi­tion­al build­ing will increase the Neu­ro Vital­i­ty Center’s space by 3,000 square feet, and allow the Cen­ter to offer more com­pre­hen­sive ser­vices to peo­ple with stroke, trau­mat­ic brain injury (TBI) and oth­er neu­ro­log­i­cal diagnoses.

“Sup­port from the Auen Foun­da­tion and oth­ers are pro­vid­ing us with an oppor­tu­ni­ty to expand and offer more neu­ro­log­i­cal ser­vices in a sin­gle set­ting,” said Bev­er­ly Greer, Neu­ro Vital­i­ty Cen­ter CEO. “Thanks to the gen­eros­i­ty of indi­vid­ual dona­tions and grant con­tri­bu­tions, we are able to con­tin­ue pro­vid­ing patients with exer­cise and ther­a­py pro­grams even after their insur­ance is exhaust­ed. Avoid­ing gaps in ser­vice reduces many patient’s recov­ery times and improves their qual­i­ty of life.”

For more than 35 years, the Neu­ro Vital­i­ty Cen­ter, for­mer­ly the Stroke Recov­ery Cen­ter, has offered recre­ation, speech and exer­cise ther­a­py to help stroke and TBI vic­tims regain inde­pen­dence and improve their qual­i­ty of life. In recent years, the Cen­ter has also offered ser­vices to patients with Mul­ti­ple Scle­ro­sis and Parkinson’s Dis­ease. Ther­a­peu­tic reha­bil­i­ta­tion pro­grams address the phys­i­cal, psy­cho­log­i­cal, emo­tion­al and re-social­iza­tion needs of peo­ple with many forms of neu­ro­log­i­cal issues. Ser­vices at the cen­ter also extend to these patients’ fam­i­lies, who often seek coun­sel­ing, care­giv­ing skills and oth­er resources.

“The Neu­ro Vital­i­ty Cen­ter helps sur­vivors of dibil­i­tat­ing injuries and dis­eases regain and main­tain skills. These valu­able ser­vices impact people’s lives by not only increas­ing their abil­i­ties but also build­ing con­fi­dence lev­els, which is a ben­e­fit that can­not be mea­sured,” said Catharine Reed, Senior Pro­gram Offi­cer of the Auen Foundation.

The Neu­ro Vital­i­ty Cen­ter, is still locat­ed at 2800 East Ale­jo Road, Palm Springs. For more infor­ma­tion about the cen­ter, call 760–323-7676 or vis­it www.NeuroVitalityCenter.org.