National Rehabilitation Awareness Week is celebrated every year on the third week of September. In 2025, the Barnes-Jewish Hospital Rehabilitation Department celebrated National Rehabilitation Awareness Week from September 15-21, culminating in an awards luncheon recognizing those who made a difference in rehab. The “Friends of Rehab” award is given to a colleague outside of the department of rehab in recognition of their partnership and collaboration.
“The Rehabilitation department recognizes that quality patient care is only made possible by the support of many different health care professionals working together. In addition, those that win the award are recognized for going above usual expectations in supporting rehab staff, providing exceptional technical skills/information/consultation/support, acting as a collaborator or resource to meet the needs of rehab staff and demonstrating positive communication skills and workplace behaviors.” In 2025, the Rehabilitation Department was honored to present this award to hospitalist Robert Young, MD, MS.
This gem of a human helped me not only clean a patient up, but assisted in getting her to her chair. He was so helpful and advocated for mobility. Truly a friend of rehab!”
Dr. Young joined the Rehabilitation staff for lunch, where they shared kind words written by his nominators to express gratitude for his excellent partnership. One staff member shared, “Dr. Young is a true friend of the Rehab Department. He advocates for rehab with his residents and educates his residents on the purpose of therapy, importance of mobility, and evaluating mobility and PLOF before automatically placing a PT/OT order. He looks at function as the marker of progress over standardization.” They went on to say, “For example, a patient with early dementia did poorly on cognitive testing, but Dr. Young felt that this patient could go home with intermittent assist if they had the proper support for medication and financial management. He advocated for therapy to evaluate these components without automatically sending the patient to a nursing home. He truly advocated for his patient and their independence and recognized that therapy was one way they could get home safely. He helped a physical therapist get a patient up to the chair, but before doing so, he helped the PT clean up the patient after a bowel accident.”
“Dr. Young recognizes the staffing predicament of therapy and empathizes and supports our initiatives to provide better, more efficient care to the right patients at the right time. He treats all members of the interdisciplinary team with respect and collaborates with Rehab to deliver the best care for his patients. We appreciate all he does for us.”
Another staff member said, ” Dr. Young recognizes the staffing predicament of therapy and empathizes and supports our initiatives to provide better, more efficient care to the right patients at the right time. He treats all members of the interdisciplinary team with respect and collaborates with Rehab to deliver the best care for his patients. We appreciate all he does for us.”
Congratulations to Dr. Young on this well-deserved acknowledgement and thank you for your continued efforts to collaborate with the Rehabilitation Department.