How TRUE multidisciplinary rehab actually works
Everyone has heard of a Physiotherapist (Physio) before, but recently these Exercise Physiologists (EP’s) have been popping up, so how are they different from the other health professionals out there and what role can they play in your rehab journey?
When we talk about ‘rehab’, there are a few key jobs that need to be done well to make sure you can come up with a good long term solution:
First you need to figure out what the problem actually is – that’s diagnosis. You can be doing the best plan out there to treat knee pain. That’s not helpful if the actual problem is your ankle though.
Then, we have the acute management of pain. We need to put in strategies to manage pain in the short term and then reduce it in the long term.
After that, there is the long term development to address the problem, how it came about and what contributed to it. The aim isn’t to just get you back to where you were before, but to address the factors that contributed so the problem is gone and stays gone!
Each of these jobs require a similar but distinct set of skills. You’re happy for your GP to deal with your cold and flu symptoms but you wouldn’t ask them to complete your heart surgery.
This is the exact same thing.
A Physio is generally really good at the first two jobs. They’re trained in figuring out what the problem is and getting you back to a point where you can function with more manageable pain. This is great.
An EP on the other hand is typically concerned with taking you from function to performance, using exercise as medicine. They have a complex understanding of various health conditions/injuries and how to use exercise and lifestyle changes as a protocol to improve these. This will help with pain and getting rid of those contributing factors, but the goal is to get you operating better than you were before.
This is why Physio and EP’s are a match made in heaven.
There’s a problem though.
Often in the industry we see practitioners who say they can “do it all” holding on to clients because it’s good business for them, even when they should be referring to someone who may be more suited to the job.
That becomes an issue when you want the best person for the job. Remember the heart surgeon example?
So how do we avoid that?
We have both!
Our physios aren’t judged on how well they can do an EP’s job and vice versa. We have a multidisciplinary team that work and collaborate together to achieve best outcomes. This means “the best person for the job” is the one in charge of your care. Seamless handovers and lots of team communication means we’re always talking about our patients to each other all the time and figuring out how we can get the best results using each-others skill sets.
This mimics the model in elite sport, but is accessible to anyone. If you played AFL you might go from the Physio, to an EP, to the Rehab coordinator, and then start integrating back in with the regular training group. We do the same thing for you, always having your plan be taken care of by the most appropriate person for the job.
In summary, both Physios and EP’s have a role to play in rehab and return to performance, and like most things in life they work best when they work as a team and play to their strengths.
But who should you be seeing? You don’t have to figure that out on your own, we can certainly help.
If you’re unsure give a us a call or find out more information about Exercise Physiology or GYM.
We’ll work with you to get you started on the right path.