Home and Industrial Treatment For Physiotherapy

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Preparing for the Return Home

The physiotherapist influences the patient's attitude to his future. He or She endeavours to draw out the maximum capacity of which each patient is capable and she is helped by the co-operation and understanding of the relatives who must be guided by the rehabilitation team in handling and managing the disabled person.

Over-protectiveness and too much help are just as harmful as lack of help and understanding, but relatives should not attempt to bear too heavy a burden in case they break down.

Before a patient returns home he must learn how to cope with the particular domestic hazards he will face in his home surroundings.

A simple daily necessity such as going to the toilet may have become a complicated awkward set of movements to the person with a stiffened hip or with one arm.

So the relatives are asked to give accurate and adequate details concerning the layout of the home, kitchen arrangements, width of doors and passages, possible slopes, kerbs and ramps.

Training under similar conditions in the physiotherapy department is then started, e.g., standing, walking, balancing and management of activities in relation to bed, chair, toilet, bath, steps and stairs.

The bedfast patient needs the greatest possible independence in bed and in sitting; the house-bound need complete independence within the four walls of home, including dressing, bathing and feeding.

The ambulant person needs the ability to get about on various surfaces such as grass, gravel, wet pavements, gradients and slopes. Some need training in how to use transport - a wheel-chair, special vehicle, adapted car, or a public bus or train.

The physiotherapist tries to teach the patient maximum independence so that he needs the least possible help once he returns home.

The rehabilitation team consider and recommend modifications and adaptations in the home, such as suitable switches, handrails and taps.

Relatives are instructed on how to give the necessary physical help in lifting, changing position, using a hoist or assisting with walking.

If necessary, they are put in touch with people or local services who will advise and help them with their problems.

Treatment at Home

In some cases, it is considered more suitable for a physiotherapist to give treatment in the patient's own home. He or she may continue treatment which had begun in hospital.

The physiotherapist works with the general practitioner and consults other members of the team. As in the hospital department, a treatment programme is carefully planned for the individual patient.

Success or failure depends entirely on the full co-operation of the patient who is the key person and who must know what is involved, and what part he must play in his own rehabilitation.

Therapist, patient and family must have a frank discussion and any suggestions and ideas from the patient and relatives will be considered and tried out if possible.

But, of course, what the patient wants is not always the best thing for him. In helping the patient to master his disability and readjust to a different way of life, the degree of achievement will be greatly influenced by the attitude of the relatives, the home surroundings, and the reaction of the community in which the patient lives.

Physiotherapy in Industry

In industry the physiotherapist provides treatment similar to that given in a hospital department, but it is given on the spot in order to keep down lost working hours.

Where it is possible, tools and processes are adapted so that the work itself becomes part of the treatment, and the disabled person's return to full function is more effective and more rapid.

Another advantage of being on the spot is that the therapist can see where occupational diseases can be prevented and where occupational fatigue may be lessened.

Collaboration with industrial sports organisations also helps to keep the workers fit.

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