How Physio Works
Physiotherapy involves the assessment, diagnosis and treatment of musculoskeletal injuries.
You may ask what is a musculoskeletal injury?
If you have ever had reason to visit your GP about an injury, you may have been told that you will be referred for an assessment at the musculoskeletal clinic. Sound familiar?
We have observed that few people understand exactly what this musculoskeletal clinic is. To put it simply, musculoskeletal disorders are problems with your back, neck, hip, shoulders, feet, knees, bones, joints, ligaments, muscles and tendons that may be causing you pain and even reducing movement.
If you are experiencing pain in any of the above, then physiotherapy treatment will help you.
Don’t wait for your GP to eventually refer you, the sooner you call us, the sooner your pain will reduce.
Your Physiotherapy Assessment
Once you have made your initial appointment with our secretarial team, at the first session your physiotherapist will perform an assessment to determine the extent and nature of your injury. As part of the assessment the physiotherapist will talk to you and ask for information like how, were and when the pain started. The physio will also examine the problem area and note any obvious deformities like bruising or swelling. Once this is finished, your physio can then give you an accurate diagnosis.
Your Diagnosis
This is the part were we are able to answer that all important question: “how long will it take to get better”? Isnt this the bit that we all want to know? Your physio will give you a guideline of typically how long your injury will take to recover. If you have back pain, you want to know when it will be gone!
Listening to our patients, we have observed that what they want from their first session is to know what is wrong with them and to leave with a clear understanding of their injury. We think that this is one of the most important parts of your experience with us. To put it simply, if you know what is wrong with you, then you have piece of mind knowing that there is a cure or a resolve. We will endeavor to explain your injury in a manner which is clear and concise, often using analogies and examples to help you understand.
For example: People often visit our clinics not knowing what they have done to cause their injury. This can throw up obvious concerns if pain occurs for no good reason. Far from being out of the ordinary, the majority of the problems we see in the clinic are non traumatic – i.e. they have just all of a sudden happened.
You can keep doing something, and keep doing something then all of a sudden the body will give up. This is when you need a physiotherapist. Think of us as mechanics for your body. Like a car, your body may need an occasional service or MOT. With a simple explanation like this, we hope that you will see that your injury is not as sinister as first thought.
Your Treatment
We will use a range of treatment types, selected and dependent upon the nature of your injury. We are of the belief that there is no one single cure, yet more likely the collection of a series of treatments taking effect at the same time will be of more benefit.
For example, we may choose to use ultrasound or heat treatment in conjunction with a deep sports massage to first warm the injured area in preparation for the high velocity movement that is manipulation. Our treatment plans follow a logical and structured format and we have developed clinical care treatment plans that follow guidelines of BUPA healthcare and the Chartered Society of Physiotherapy (CSP).
We are also keen to help you help yourself. i.e. we will, at an appropriate point of your recovery, provide you with a personal exercise plan, and advise you on the home self management of your condition.
Contrary to popular belief, exercises are not always required at the beginning of your treatment – we believe that you are the best healer there is, better than any doctor or GP, you sometimes just simply have to allow the body to rest and recover and let natural healing happen. You can only do this effectively with the right advice – from us!
It is this type of advice, knowing what to do as well as what not to do, that will ensure a quick recovery.
