Body
Before Tim Behrens, PhD, contracted COVID-19 in the fall of 2020, he was the active 47-year-old dean of the College of Health Sciences at the University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee. But instead of a quick recovery, Behrens experienced complications including sepsis and a series of strokes, which in turn led to memory loss and partial paralysis on his left side. Behrens was in the hospital for more than five months. After his condition stabilized, he had to relearn how to eat and drink. Formerly an avid runner, he struggled to walk. The virus also had affected his autonomic nervous system, which helps the body regulate its temperature. Behrens could no longer endure Wisconsin’s long winters. “I was in pretty rough shape,” he concedes.
He asked for and received a workplace accommodation from the university under the Americans with Disabilities Act to work remotely. Behrens and his family moved to Albuquerque, New Mexico, for its relatively mild climate. He resigned as dean and resumed teaching remotely but he was acutely aware that he hadn’t returned to his pre-COVID self.
Behrens was attending the American College of Sports Medicine conference in 2022 when he ran into an old friend and colleague, Jim Rimmer. Rimmer, PhD, teaches at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, and is also the founder and director of the National Center on Health, Physical Activity and Disability (NCHPAD). Funded by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, NCHPAD promotes lifestyle wellness for people with disabilities and offers a series of free online health-and-wellness programs.
One of them is called MENTOR, which stands for Mindfulness, Exercise and Nutrition to Optimize Resilience. Rimmer told Behrens that he thought MENTOR’s eight-week program would benefit him and suggested Behrens give it a try. “One of my goals has been to bring in coaches and instructors with lived experience, and Tim understood the challenges of acquiring a disability later in life,” Rimmer says. “I wanted to see if the program would benefit him and if he might want to become involved as an instructor.”
FIND OUT HOW YOU CAN JOIN THE MENTOR PROGRAM.
Behrens signed up. He received a box of simple exercise equipment like stretch bands and was placed in a group with three other people with physical disabilities, one of whom had experienced a traumatic brain injury that left him unable to speak. Behrens’ group met by Zoom for an hour each weekday for eight weeks. Two hours weekly were devoted to exercise. “Our coach would tell us to take the red band out of the box and we would do some exercise with it or maybe shadow box,” Behrens remembers.
Another session was led by a registered dietitian who focused on nutrition and healthy eating. For an additional hour, a mindfulness instructor led them through breathing exercises designed to promote relaxation and reduce negative thought patterns. That turned out to be one of the most meaningful aspects of MENTOR for Behrens. “I knew a lot about the other components but not mindfulness. As it turns out, that is the piece I probably needed the most!” he says.
On Fridays, yet another coach explored other aspects of health and wellness such as spirituality, self-care skills and healthy relationships, among others. The participants also were pointed toward sources of information they could explore on their own. “We give them a taste of everything and then they can choose what to explore more deeply,” Rimmer says. The overall goal of MENTOR is to build a person’s resilience, he adds. “When people acquire a disability, they often go through stages of grief and loss until they realize that they have much to offer themselves, family members, other individuals with disabilities and society at large. The pathway to optimal health goes through the most trying times of your life.”
During the two months the program lasted, Behrens felt a bond grow with his fellow participants and he began to explore his new identity as a person with a disability. He knew that if he skipped a session his coach and the rest of his group would miss him. “In general, it kept me accountable and encouraged me to get up and do something. That was crucial and something to look forward to,” he says. Behrens also could tell that his executive functioning was improving and he felt proud that he was able to tackle a two-month commitment and follow it through to the end. He now regularly recommends the MENTOR program to others, including members of his stroke support group.
Like Behrens, other participants in MENTOR have reported benefits from the program ranging from improved physical fitness and better eating habits to more restful sleep and increased self-care. Based on before and after surveys, many participants also reported a heightened sense that they are contributing to society. A large percentage of MENTOR participants reported spending more time in nature after going through the program.
The Center for Rehabilitation Outcomes Research (CROR) at the Shirley Ryan AbilityLab is working with NCHPAD to bring MENTOR’s benefits to more people. CROR, which works to improve the lives of people with physical disabilities, has committed to enrolling 300 people in MENTOR. “The program has the potential to be of great benefit to people with disabilities in terms of promoting physical fitness and improved quality of life,” says CROR Director Allen Heinemann, PhD. “It’s been tested and well received, and now we have the opportunity to partner with the University of Alabama at Birmingham to evaluate it in the context of current and former patients of the Shirley Ryan AbilityLab. We look forward to seeing the results.”