What is Physiotherapy?

Physiotherapy helps restore movement and function and maximise physical potential and quality of life when someone is affected by injury, illness or disability. It is a healthcare profession allied to medicine - it is not an "alternative" therapy.

Physiotherapists work with people to prevent, assess and treat functional impairments using physical interventions including manual techniques, massage and exercise therapy in addition to providing education and advice. Neurological physiotherapists additionally use techniques to facillitate and retrain normal movement, and to normalise muscle tone and spasticity.

Physiotherapy is science-based, committed to extending, applying, evaluating and reviewing the evidence that underpins and informs its practice and delivery. The exercise of clinical judgement and informed interpretation is at its core. For more information, please see the Chartered Society of Physiotherapy's website here.

What conditions does Power Physiotherapy treat?

Conditions most commonly treated in the community fall into four main categories, with patients often presenting with multiple pathologies:

Neurological conditions:

• Brain injury
• CVA (stroke)
• Spinal cord injury
• Parkinsons Disease
• Multiple Sclerosis

A note on physiotherapy for progressive neurological conditions:

Physiotherapy has an important role in the management of progressive neurological conditions. For these patients - such as those with, for example, Multiple Sclerosis, Huntingdon's Disease or Motor Neurone Disease - the goals of treatment are to reduce the degree of secondary complications and to enable the best quality of life possible. In cases where the primary condition is incurable, patients can very often still achieve measurable improvements in posture and positioning, muscle strength and flexibility helping to improve their comfort, functional independence and quality of life.

© 2007, Melanie Power. All rights reserved.