Physio Made Easy

I was thinking about what frustrates me about physiotherapy.  What are the things that physios do that confuse me?  If I was a patient, what would stop me coming back?  

What I don't like is physios that make things super complicated.  I'm not sure if that helps position them as an "expert", meaning you've got to pay them because you absolutely can't help yourself. Or it may be that they don't completely understand what they're talking about so can't explain it well.  But I don't like smoke and mirrors.  I think physio can be pretty simple.

This leads me to ask - if I boil it down, what are the most important things I do to help you recover from your injury?

I think it comes down to two key components:

1. You need to understand what's wrong.  I need to explain some complicated stuff to you in a way that my Nanna or my kids could understand.  If you understand what's going on, you'll understand why it's important to do what I ask you to do to get yourself better.
2. What are the one or two most important things you need to do?  If it was just one thing, what would you do?  Best bang for your buck?

Usually the most important thing comes down to you doing a stretch or strengthening exercise at home.  More often than not it's you consistently making small gains with a home program that makes the biggest difference to your recovery.  Not anything miraculous that I can do to you here.

If it's super important, why do some people do their home exercise and others don't?  Life gets in the way.  It's hard to remember.  You've got better things to do.

So, I need to make it as easy as possible for you.  That's my job.  That's why I'm better than just googling it.

​I understand that small stuff gets in the way.  You remember to do the exercise when you're in the car and can't do it.  Before you know it, you get to the end of the day and it's not been done.  There's lots of little things that make a home exercise program hard to do "now" - meaning you leave it for "later".  If you have to get on the floor you'll do it "later".  If there's too many exercises to do, you'll do it "later".  If you have to use equipment - it's not on hand.  Any little barrier to getting it done means it doesn't get done.  It needs to be easy.  

So my practical solution for your recovery comes back to: WHAT WOULD I REALISTICALLY DO MYSELF?.  It's lucky I've had a few injuries and have learnt what's realistic and what's not.  If I had your injury, what is the one thing I would actually, realistically do myself?

I think that is a great question for all healthcare professionals.  Because we know that around 40% of our health budget is wasted on unnecessary tests and treatments.  Unnecessary healthcare expenses add up to $45 billion/year in Australia.  It is amazing how many things healthcare practitioners recommend to patients that they wouldn't do themselves.

I think we could save a lot of time, effort, and money if all health practitioners had a tick box to sign-off on all investigations and treatments  - Would they do it themselves?

So that's what I give you.  Things that I would do.  I understand what is practical and realistic.

Simple Explanations + Practical Solutions = Happy You!

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