When was the last time your physiotherapist laid their hands on you? There is a growing trend amongst physiotherapists to avoid manual treatment. Why is that and what are the implications for the patient?
Over the last twenty or so years there has been a growing drive to ensure that physiotherapists are delivering only evidence-based treatments to their patients. This is a fantastic objective. Experiencing excellent treatment is what every patient rightly expects. It is also the gold standard that physiotherapists aim for. The stronger evidence base a clinical treatment has the more confident both physiotherapist and patient can have that a successful resolution of the presenting symptoms will be achieved.
Manual therapies have especially fallen foul of this evidence-based approach towards physiotherapy treatment for at least two significant reasons,
Firstly, because it is very difficult to objectively assess and measure the effect that a manual therapy is having upon the body at the time of treatment and especially when different physiotherapists are delivering the ‘same’ manual treatment technique.
Secondly, when the effect of manual techniques can be measured, the benefits of these techniques are very often found to be temporary, perhaps resulting in the reduction of the patient’s belief in the treatment method and, therefore, increased reluctance to persevere with treatment.
The reliance, therefore, on strong evidence is understandable in the pursuit of patient retention and for measuring successful outcomes for both clinics and patients.
This is especially true for episodes of lower back pain. More and more evidence is now being published stating that general movement and, indeed, exercise is the most successful form of treatment to resolve current symptoms and prevent a future relapse.
If, however, a system existed to demonstrate to the patients how to independently self-treat using manual techniques following the physiotherapy treatment sessions, retention would be ensured along with a much better patient experience of physiotherapy in general. Most importantly, though – the patient would feel enabled to maintain & manage their own mobility to avoid future episodic relapses and a depressing return to (probably a different) physiotherapy clinic for further treatment. This is the aim at The Moballise Physiotherapy Clinic – patient enablement that puts you back in control of your body.
This is effective because you are then enabled to deliver the treatment yourself at any time, in any place. This approach puts us all on the same side and ensures that you are receiving more than physio. We are enabling you to independently care for your body brilliantly without wasting precious time. Yes, the effects will be temporary. However, the way to make temporary changes more permanent is through the act of repetition. If, therefore, you are enabled to repeat your manual treatments whenever you like, you will be in complete control of your symptoms. This will result in your being less afraid of activity and life in general because you will have more resilience to the symptoms.
