Jacksonville Health and Rehabilitation is ready to step into the new year with new staff members ready to take care of local residents.

Recently, the facility announced that Brantley Newton would be the new administrator. Newton is a native of Tuscaloosa and is a graduate of the University of Alabama. He has been employed by JH&R's parent company, Northport Health Services, for the past 10 years. Prior to his arrival in Jacksonville, he spent the last 10 years working in the parent company's facilities in Alabama and Florida.

"It's kind of a labor of love so to speak," said Newton. "Once you start in this business you start enjoying the people and the relationships you get to make with not only the patents but their families as well. The homegrown atmosphere we enjoy at here at Jacksonville makes the job fun and helps with the healing process."

Newton and his wife, Sheryl, have been married for three months. Newton says she works with helping others in the nursing home business.

"It's kind of a passion of ours," he said.

Although Jacksonville Health and Rehabilitation has always offered quality long term and Azheimer's / Dementia care, it is Newton's goal to promote the changes the facility is making to their short-term rehabilitation program.

"Our goal is not only to help heal, but also to help prevent," said Newton. "We want to get people healthy and back up on their feet, and then help prepare them so they can stay that way."

The addition of Dr. Danny Sparks, an orthopedic surgeon with practices in both Jacksonville and Gadsden, as the facilities new rehabilitation clinical director should help accomplish that goal.

"The addition of Dr. Sparks adds convenience for patients to receive their rehabilitation, post-operative care, and follow-up visits in-house," said Newton. "The most unique aspect of this partnership is that our rehabilitation team, under the direction of Dr. Sparks, will be utilizing specific protocols for recovery set forth by our other partnering physicians."

Dr. Sparks is married and has four children, two of which, Daniel and Dierick Sparks, are orthopedic surgeons who work with their father.

"Our goal is to do some innovated rehabilitation techniques for the elderly here at the Rehabilitation Center," said Dr. Sparks. "There are a lot of new techniques in rehabilitating the elderly that we have discovered in the last 15 to 20 years that were not utilized in the past, and as things usually go, old techniques tend to reproduce themselves over the years and we continue to use the same techniques, but now we have new techniques that rehabilitate people faster and to a higher degree of functional capacity and those are the techniques we are going to institute in this community."

One of those new techniques is the addition of Low Vision Therapy.

"Physical, occupational and speech therapy have always been an integral part of the rehabilitation services offered at Jacksonville Health and Rehab," said Newton. "But we are pleased to add Low Vision Therapy to the growing list of quality services provided by Jacksonville Health and Rehab. It has been found that many people suffer injuries as a result of falls associated with decreasing vision related to conditions such as macular degeneration, cataracts, strokes, and diabetes. Our certified low vision therapist will work with patients to utilize the vision they still have in order to decrease the incidents of falls and subsequent injuries when they return home.

"At Jacksonville Health and Rehabilitation's newly remodeled therapy gyms and highly qualified rehab department, the people of Calhoun County can feel confident they are receiving the best care possible," said Newton.

For more information call 256-435-7704 or visit the facilities at 410 Wilson Drive S.W.