Barrow & District Physiotherapy
First Appointment
PHYSIOTHERAPY SERVICES BARROW
Barrow & district physiotherapy
Initial Assessment
At Barrow & District Physiotherapy, we must first carry out a comprehensive and thorough initial assessment to determine your needs and ascertain what the main problems are and how best to treat these problems.
An initial assessment includes the following:
- Subjective Assessment
This involves asking questions which relate to your general health, medical history, social history, and anything hobby or work related wise, relating to your problem. During the initial assessment, you will be asked when the problem started and how your problem impacts you. This will help guide what the aims of the treatment are and any goals that are set.
- Physical Assessment
Following your subjective assessment a physical assessment will take place. The physical assessment helps to identify the cause of the problem, and any contributing factors and help guide as to how Physiotherapy can help you. The physical assessment will vary according to age, condition and pain levels. In general a physical assessment will assess your range of movement, joint stability, muscle length , muscle strength, co-ordination and balance depending on the type of problem. There may also be special tests carried out.
- Diagnoses & Explanation
Your problem(s) will be discussed with you, with an explanation as to why you are experiencing the problems that you have. A firm understanding into your condition and problems is vitally important in terms of maximising Physiotherapy and rehabilitation opportunities. This is when you may wish to formulate your own questions, to help you further understand the situation and to help you to develop your own goals in your recovery and rehabilitation. It may not always be possible to give an exact diagnoses, an example of which could be if it is felt that you need further investigations for an example an x-ray, CT-scan, MRI scan or discussions with a specialist. If this is the case, this will be discussed with you as to what is the most likely diagnosis and to help to inform you in what to handover to your GP.
- Treatment Options
Having carried out the subjective assessment, physical assessment and diagnosis your Physiotherapist will then advise as to what the approximate length of time will be to recover as well as the frequency of treatments within that timeframe.
Barrow & District Physiotherapy believes in empowering clients in assisting with their own recovery process. And as part of this process, education, advice, exercise rehabilitation programmes and massage therapy sessions are provided depending on the condition or problems.
In most cases you will be provided with something to work on exercise wise, until your first treatment or follow up session. And depending on time and Physio findings you may also be provided with massage therapy following the initial assessment.
- Goal setting
You may wish to set your own goals as part of your rehabilitation or recovery process. Goals can be agreed upon as part of your initial assessment. But can also be included as part of your follow treatment(s). Goals that can be looked at as being achievable such as reducing pain from 8/10 to 3/10 in 6 weeks or to regain full movement and strength in 8 weeks. Goals can be discussed with you. Barrow & District Physiotherapy can help guide you as to what are realistic goals for you, so that you can achieve your own Physio goals.