PHYSIOTHERAPY AND REHABILITATION
Physiotherapy:
This is the treatment to restore, maintain, and make the most of a patient's mobility, function, and well-being. Physiotherapy helps through physical rehabilitation, injury prevention, and health and fitness. Physiotherapists get patients involved in their own recovery.
Physiotherapists focus on both prevention and rehabilitation. Treatment can be for problems that were caused by injury, disease or disability.
Here are some examples:
- Neck and back pain caused by problems in the muscles and skeleton
- Problems in the bones, joints, muscles and ligaments, such as arthritis and the after-effects of amputation
- Lung problems such as asthma
- Disability as a result of heart problems
- Pelvic issues, such as bladder and bowel problems related to childbirth
- Loss of mobility because of trauma to the brain or spine, or due to diseases such as Parkinson's disease and multiple sclerosis
- Fatigue, pain, swelling, stiffness and loss of muscle strength, for example during cancer treatment, or palliative care
Whilst at the hospital, our physiotherapist will learn about a patient's medical history, assess and diagnose the patient's condition, schedule a treatment plan that sets goals for patient, and then patients is prescribed a course of exercises and any assistive devices that may be needed.
Rehabilitation: Is about enabling and supporting individuals to recover or adjust, to achieve their full potential and to live as full and active lives as possible. Rehab should start as soon as possible to hasten recovery. Research has shown that it can improve the mobility and activity levels, it can shorten the amount of time a patient will need to stay in hospital or off work and greatly improve the quality of life.
Rehabilitation is for patients who have lost abilities that are needed for daily life. Some of the most common causes include:
- Burns:A burn is a type of injury to skin, or other tissues, caused by heat, cold, electricity, chemicals, friction, or radiation. Most burns are due to heat from hot liquids (called scalding), solids, or fire. fractures (broken bones)
- Traumatic Brain Injury: A form of acquired brain injury, occurs when a sudden trauma causes damage to the brain. TBI can result when the head suddenly and violently hits an object, or when an object pierces the skull and enters brain tissue.
- Spinal Cord Injuries: A spinal cord injury (SCI) is damage to the spinal cord that results in a loss of function, such as mobility and/or feeling.
- Stroke: A stroke occurs when a blood vessel that carries oxygen and nutrients to the brain is either blocked by a clot or bursts (or ruptures). When that happens, part of the brain cannot get the blood and thus oxygen that it needs, so it and brain cells die.
- Severe infections: An infection is the invasion of an organism's body tissues by disease-causing agents. A focal infection is defined as the initial site of infection from which organisms travel via the bloodstream to another area of the body.
- Major surgery: Any invasive operative procedure in which a more extensive resection is performed, e.g. a body cavity is entered, organs are removed, or normal anatomy is altered.
- Side effects from medical treatments, such as from cancer treatments: This includes both traditional therapies (such as surgery, chemotherapy, and radiation.
- Certain birth defects and genetic disorders: Sometimes a gene change can cause health conditions, like cystic fibrosis and sickle cell disease. A gene change also can cause birth defects, like heart defects. These are called single gene disorders, and they run in families. A birth defect is a health condition that is present in a baby at birth.
- Developmental disabilities: Severe, long-term problems. They may be physical, such as blindness. They may affect mental ability, such as learning disabilities, or the problem can be both physical and mental, such as Down syndrome. The problems are usually life-long, and can affect everyday living.
- Chronic pain, including back and neck pain: The exact cause of back and neck pain is difficult to determine. In most cases, back and neck pain may have many different causes, including any of the following: Overuse, strenuous activity, or improper use, such as repetitive or heavy lifting. Trauma, injury, or fractures.
THE GOALS OF REHABILITATION
The overall goal of rehabilitation is to help recover abilities and independence but the goals may differforspecific cases.
The goal will depend on the cause the problem, whether the cause is ongoing or temporary, which abilities were lost, and how severe the problem is.
For example:
- A stroke patient may need rehabilitation to be able to dress or bathe without help
- An active person who has had a heart attack may go through cardiac rehabilitation to try to return to exercising.
- Someone with a lung disease may get pulmonary rehabilitation to be able to breathe better and improve quality of life.
The general aim is to improve strength and mobility and to find ways around problems. For example, if one has had had a fall, our physiotherapist may recommend some equipment to assist with walking and an exercise programme to improve balance and strength.
Rehabilitation can also help with stamina management in the case of asthma, chronic fatigue syndrome or following major surgery.
