An excellent physical and occupational therapy department is one of the hallmarks of a good skilled nursing facility. The importance of regular training and functional exercise, especially for fragile geriatric patients, has been backed up by very strong scientific evidence.

Due to budget limitations and a passive lifestyle, most people in skilled nursing facilities do not exercise enoough. For example, in the Netherlands, stroke survivors in many cases get only up to 40% of the amount of exercise they should ideally get according to the Dutch quality standards. Elderly people in long term care who do not see a therapist often do light exercise for less than 5 minutes per day (this includes moving their own wheelchair or walking for more than 1 minute or so). This should be a concern to all involved as insufficient exercise will lead to further deterioration of physical and cognitive abilities.

The SilverFit can help the therapist to use his time more effectively and offer therapy to more patients at  the same time. This can diminish costs per hour of patient training by 30-50%. The participants are often so motivated by the training, that they discover they can do things they thought were no longer possible. The positive emotion surrounding a virtual therapy system such as the SilverFit makes therapy and exercising fun, and often leads to positive coverage in local media.

The exercises can be set to a very low level so that anyone who is able to sit and react to a TV screen can play. More detailed examples for specific patient categories can be found by clicking on the panel on the right.