Physiotherapists treat musculoskeletal pain and injury, assist with pregnancy and childbirth and manage long-term health conditions (such as respiratory disorders). They also improve age-related mobility and function.
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Chronic Conditions
Physiotherapists work with patients to prevent or reduce the impact of chronic health conditions that cause pain and disability. They help to maintain health for people of all ages, enabling them to manage their own care and wellbeing through movement and exercise, manual therapy, education and advice.
Optimise Health physiotherapists are expert to treat neurological disorders that affect the brain and spinal cord. This can include dizziness, tremors and balance issues. They also help to improve mobility and range of motion for those suffering from Parkinson’s disease or Multiple Sclerosis. They use exercise programs, manual therapy and gait training to address balance, strength and functional ability.
They can reduce symptoms of depression or anxiety with cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) and relaxation techniques. They can also implement strategies to promote positive mental health like mindfulness and psychoeducation.
Those who suffer from chronic health conditions often have multiple diagnoses or comorbidities, which can impact their quality of life and increase the risk of functional decline. Adding initiatives like case discussions to a busy clinical schedule can be hard for clinicians to prioritise, and they may not have the resources or skills to conduct these activities independently. Future research needs to investigate how physiotherapists can improve their capacity to integrate psychosocial approaches. This is important because a person’s expectations can significantly impact their experience of care and outcomes, especially if those expectations are not realistic.
Pregnancy and Childbirth
Pregnancy can be a wonderful time, but it can also cause significant physical discomforts. If you’re experiencing back pain, pelvic discomfort or trouble with movement, a Optimise Health physio clinic can provide treatment to alleviate these symptoms and help you prepare for childbirth.
One of the main reasons women seek out physiotherapy during pregnancy is to ease back pain. As your center of gravity shifts, your spinal cord has to adjust to support the extra weight, which can lead to lumbar spine (lower back) pain. A physiotherapist can help strengthen your back muscles and teach you how to improve posture to reduce this pain.
During the latter stages of pregnancy, a physiotherapist can also help you prepare for labor and delivery. This includes teaching you how to move and what stretches and exercises to do, which can help you have a less complicated delivery. They can also give you techniques for breathing and other aspects of preparing your body for childbirth.
Women who have undergone physiotherapy during their pregnancy have claimed that it has helped them have a shorter, faster delivery. They’ve also had fewer complications, including incontinence. They’ve also had lower rates of fetal distress and a faster recovery after delivery. This is due to the fact that women who undergo physiotherapy during pregnancy have stronger abdominal muscles, which will help them recover after birth.
Sports Injuries
Physiotherapists work with athletes and those involved in physical activities to optimize their performance and prevent injuries. They conduct assessments of an athlete’s strength, flexibility, balance, and coordination to determine their injury risk factors. They also advise athletes on training techniques and proper technique to help minimize injury risks.
Using manual examinations and diagnostic tests, physiotherapists can assess the extent of an athlete’s sports injury and identify underlying issues contributing to it. This allows them to develop targeted treatment plans for rehabilitation and recovery.
Common injuries that physiotherapists treat include sprains and strains. Sprains are a result of overstretching or tearing of ligaments while strains involve the same process but with tendons, which connect muscles to bones. can address both these types of injuries using treatment methods like joint mobilization, soft tissue manipulation, and myofascial release.
Overuse sports injuries such as tennis elbow are another common ailment that physical therapists can help alleviate. These types of injuries are often caused by repetitive actions, such as throwing a baseball, which can cause the forearm to become inflamed and cause pain. Physical therapists can reduce pain and inflammation using RICE — rest, ice, compression, and elevation.
Physiotherapists can also teach athletes how to improve their balance and proprioception, which is the body’s ability to sense its position in space. This is important because injuries can occur if the body isn’t able to sense its movements and compensate accordingly.
Ageing
When people are older, Our physiotherapists often work with them to reduce pain and improve their physical strength, mobility, and balance. They may do this in , hospitals, nursing homes or rehabilitation facilities, or they can go to patients’ homes. They also may work with doctors to provide feedback on how a patient is progressing.
Elderly patients can benefit from a variety of treatment techniques including exercise to increase muscle mass, bone density, and cardiovascular endurance, manual therapy to reduce pain and stiffness, and education on proper body mechanics and posture. Physiotherapists also can help to prevent falls and enhance balance, which is a major cause of injury for seniors. Physiotherapy can reduce the need for medications by improving overall physical health and reducing the effects of chronic health conditions.
When assessing an elderly patient, it is important for physiotherapists to take into consideration their social history and the availability of informal supports (such as family or friends). For some, these factors could be what drives them to engage in unbeneficial health behaviors such as smoking. To address this, physiotherapists can use motivational interviewing (MI)—a counseling technique to explore ambivalence—to motivate clients to change their unhealthy habits. MI involves a short exchange of dialogue between the therapist and client, with both parties rating their importance and confidence in each area on a scale of 0-10. The result is that the most important health behaviours are identified and prioritized.
