New IWK specialist helping kids achieve life goals — like going to the mall

Dr. Jordan Sheriko is the first in his field to work at the children’s hospital.

Dr. Jordan Sheriko plays with Elliot Little at the IWK Health Centre’s rehabilitation clinic. Robert Guertin CBC

Carolyn Ray, CBC News Nova Scotia May 07, 2018

In a large room filled with stairs, a basketball net and railings, four-year-old Elliot Little plays cards as Dr. Jordan Sheriko looks on.

Elliot beams as he matches two pictures of fish.

This isn’t how many people would picture a rehabilitation session. But Sheriko isn’t here to do conventional therapy.

“It’s very much life goals, it’s very much function-based,” he said of his work. “Moving away from the specifics of the diagnosis and moving toward, What is it that you want to do?”

Sheriko became the first pediatric physical medicine and rehabilitation specialist at the IWK Health Centre when he started last summer. He’s one of a small but growing field in Canada. He estimates there are fewer than two dozen pediatric physical medicine and rehabilitation specialists in Canada, even though the career has existed to treat adults for years. Sheriko says it’s about time children received the same level of care.

Treat the person, not the disease

While his title may be a mouthful, his work follows a simple concept — treat the whole person, not the disease.

“It’s less about, ‘Can I move my arm?’ and more about ‘Can I learn to play certain things with my friends?’ or ‘I want to go to the mall’ or ‘I want to go hiking with my friends.’ So we want to look at how their illness or disability influences that.”

The IWK rehab clinic follows as many as 600 patients with a wide range of conditions. Sheriko works with children with everything from cerebral palsy to spinal cord injuries to brain trauma.

“We recognize that we need to shift the focus of our interventions so that they are aligned with what the patient’s goals are,” says Dr. Sheriko. “By understanding what a patient and family’s functional goals are, we are better able to identify interventions to help those goals. Patients and families are more engaged, and outcomes are better. The patients are the experts in their lives, and the interdisciplinary team around the patient use their expertise to maximize their function.” IWK Health Centre

He says by setting life goals, the children have different motivation and respond differently to the idea of rehabilitation therapy.

“For a lot of patients and families, that’s a difficult journey to go on, the various stages of understanding and accepting those differences that they may have,” he said. “We’re not necessarily going to cure or get rid of your disease, but we can certainly move things a lot further forward in terms of what you want to achieve with your life.”

New career in pediatrics

The career has existed to treat adults for years, but pediatrics are playing catch-up.

Sheriko says it’s an exciting time to be a part of the field, thanks to the evolution of technology. Many of his patients live in rural parts of the Maritimes and don’t have access to services such as transit.

But he says smart homes and vehicles are opening the options for those with disabilities and their rehabilitation.

“Even looking at our power wheelchairs, where we were 10 years ago compared to where we are now is really looking at, ‘How do we maximize that independence for patients and families?’ And it’s really quite exciting.”

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Carolyn Ray is a videojournalist who has reported out of three provinces and two territories, and is now based in Halifax. You can reach her at Carolyn.Ray@cbc.ca

Source CBC News