Torre Woods shows up early for his appointments at Weyerhaeuser Hall, the newest building on the University of Puget Sound campus. The Tacoma Community College student brings his own chair to his favorite spot, a corner of the lobby with a bright view of the North End neighborhood near his home.
It’s always a good day when he comes here, he says.
Woods, 18, and two friends flipped while riding in a tow-tube in Tiger Lake in Kitsap County in 2010. The friends landed on him. His neck broke, and now he gets around in a wheelchair.
Once a week in the fall, he comes for occupational therapy sessions with students at the teaching clinics in the center that, since August, has housed UPS’ schools of occupational and physical therapy. He comes for physical therapy in the spring.
“I like working with these guys,” he said of the student therapists. “It’s fun because we’re learning together.”
They’re doing it in the $21 million building the university’s trustees named to honor longtime supporters and donors Bill and Gail Weyerhaeuser.
It’s a great change, faculty and students say, from the “temporary” building that dated to World War II.
It has classrooms and faculty offices, plus clinics outfitted with the newest occupational and physical therapy equipment for adults and children. There’s a simulated apartment, complete with washer and dryer and kitchen. There’s a walled courtyard with a playground for kids and a landscape of steps of different height, as well as paths of different surfaces where adults relearn how to navigate their neighborhoods.
Faculty and students are over the moon with their new digs.
Clients like it too, but they’re clear that it’s not the building that draws them. It’s the sessions with the students, and it’s the affordability. Patients are proud to be a crucial part of the education of students who need the clinical practice they make possible.
Many adult patients have run out of Medicare or insurance coverage for their therapy, said occupational therapist Kirsten Wilbur. Some still have coverage but can’t afford the co-pays. At UPS, they pay a one-time $50 registration fee.
Many clinics for children have long waiting lists, said Ann Wilson, director of Clinical Education in UPS’ School of Physical Therapy. This can be a more immediate option for them.
Gloria Cruzan, 71, of Parkland has been coming for four years. As a young woman, she taught dance at Arthur Murray Studios. When she was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease, she had just switched from driving buses for disabled people to doing in-home care for seniors.
Exercise is crucial for her to stay on her feet, she said, but the $35 she used to pay for each therapy session was tough on her budget.
“I’ve been here three semesters,” she said.
She has learned how to walk through a turn, instead of spinning and falling. She plans to dance again.
Sue Barrett has been driving her son Kennie, 52, to his sessions for four years.
He had a stroke March 18, 2005. After he was released from the hospital, he went home to live with his mother in Brookdale.
“My mom has been the drive to get better,” he said.
The students have been the means.
“They are very concerned about you,” he said. “They don’t try to get their time in and get you out. The hospitals give you a more intense workout, but I think this session has developed me with more progress.”
“We’re a teaching institution,” Wilbur said. “We can experiment with new techniques. We have access to a lot of equipment a clinic might not have.”
The students, some of whom are not from the area, keep up with local resources, from the YMCA to Tacoma Area Coalition of Individuals with Disabililities, that might benefit their patients.
“They help me learn,” Kennie Barrett said. “I help them learn.”
An informal support group is one lovely unintended consequence at the clinic, Sue Barrett said.
“We caregivers chat about what’s going on in our lives,” she said. “We make friends.”
She will not bad-mouth the waiting area in the old building. She is too loyal to the school, teachers and students for that. She will say the new one is pleasant, with assorted seating areas.
A person can be alone. A person can chat. A person can wheel into a sunny corner and look out at his North End neighborhood.
Kathleen Merryman: 253-597-8677 kathleen.merryman@ thenewstribune.com
IF YOU GO
What: Grand opening and dedication of Weyerhaeuser Hall.
When: 5-7 p.m. Oct. 28.
Where: North 11th Street, east of Union Avenue, across the street from the UPS fieldhouse.
Call: 253-879-3622 to RSVP.
JOIN THE DISCUSSION | Register here
We welcome comments. Please keep them civil, short and to the point. ALL CAPS, spam, obscene, profane, abusive and off topic comments will be deleted. Repeat offenders will be blocked. Thanks for taking part — and abiding by these simple rules. A thorough explanation of rules of conduct can be found in our Terms of Service. If you have any questions, including why your comment may not be showing immediately after you submit it, be sure to visit the commenting FAQ.