I have had the opportunity of visiting may countries around the world as part of my work as a physiotherapist. I have met with literally thousands of my professional colleagues, both qualified professional physiotherapists and students starting out on their professional journeys. This is a great privilege. I have seen firsthand how the standards of care and professional skills vary between different countries and am very pleased to boast that the skills and professionalism of our South African trained physios are amongst the very best in the world.
What also stands out is this global frustration: people outside of the physio community don’t understand what physios do. Specifically, they don’t realise how many different things physiotherapists do. Below is a list of 5 things that we at Barker Physiotherapists do that you might not know about:
- Report writing for Medico-Legal claims.
If you have had a work place injury, motor vehicle accident, or just need a physical assessment before starting a new job, we can help. - Management of lymphoedema, including highly specialized bandaging and compression garment prescription.
Charlene Cattell is a senior physiotherapist and partner in the practice and is one of the very few fully qualified lymphoedema therapists in South Africa. - Management of “Long COVID” symptoms and rehabilitating people with ongoing symptoms.
- Management of chronic pain conditions
- Running training programs for Manual Handling in a medical context
This is part of our community outreach and applies to anyone from hospital employed nurses and nursing aids to care workers in old age homes and frail care centres.
If you have any questions about these less well known parts of our work, feel free to contact us and make an appointment to discuss it.