Telehealth is up and running – But how does this work for Physiotherapy?
We are still open for face to face consults, but we are also offering Telehealth for clients who are unable to come into the clinic for any reason or have been recommended to complete their physiotherapy treatment online.
Please refer to our Telehealth service link on the website to book in for your Telehealth appointment.
But how does Telehealth work for Physiotherapy?
Firstly, having a good understanding of what physiotherapy is will help answer this question. Physiotherapy is a profession ‘to help you to help yourself’. Whilst hands on treatment can provide some pain relief and at times has its place, there is no reason you can’t be taught similar techniques to apply to yourself. More importantly, this is not the main aspect of physiotherapy.
Physiotherapists are educated so they are able to rule out medical diagnoses (non-musculoskeletal conditions or pain) in the initial assessment through questioning. This means when you present with lower back pain to a Physiotherapist we are able to provide an assessment to ensure it is coming from the soft tissue, muscles, joints, discs and/or nerves and not the abdomen, kidneys etc.
Our Physiotherapists' timely assessment has in-depth questioning before a physical assessment takes place. By the end of the questioning, Physio's usually have a suspected diagnosis but up to a maximum of three differential diagnoses that the physical assessment is used to rule in or out. The physical assessment involves analysing the painful daily activity or sport technique, followed by breaking down the activity into parts, and finally assessing the individual body part. Very rarely does physical touch need to be part of the assessment to get to a diagnosis. If this is the case however, the Physiotherapist providing the Telehealth consult will be able to discuss this with you further.
You spend 20-40minutes in a consultation with a Physiotherapist, but the most important aspect is what you do in the hours/days following this consult.
Treatment provided by Physiotherapists involves LOTS of education. This could be on how to: reduce the pain itself, regain movement, return to an activity (walking, sitting standing, cleaning, squatting down, bending over), return to sport, improve sport or running performance, or improve strength. Techniques to reduce pain can involve education around using hot or cold, movement verse rest; and how much of each is best; activities to avoid and specific exercises targeting the area and what they should be; self-massage verse stretching verse strengthening. Whilst hands on treatment is an adjunct to this it is just that, and some of those techniques can be taught to you at home if necessary.
As you can see from the assessment and treatment provided by a Physiotherapist above, Telehealth is a great way to have a consultation from your own home. Research has even proven online physiotherapy consultations to be as effective as face to face consultations.
Please contact Back In Motion, Melbourne On Collins directly if you have any further questions, or are keen to continue your rehab or check out that new onset of back pain since you've been working from home!! Stay safe everyone.