Who is Physio Group Treatment for?

Are you looking for help with any of the following?

• Recovery from an injury like back pain or lower limb pain?
• Help with improving an upper limb, headache or neck pain problem?
• Rehabilitation following orthopaedic surgery or other surgery?
• Getting condition back after a period of illness or injury and rebuilding a feeling of resilience?
  
• Help with achieving a goal, whether it is reducing pain, increasing your flexibility, or developing the ability to do something that you can’t currently physically do?

Do any of these sound like you?

• Frustrated with pain that is slow to resolve or comes and goes depending on what you do in your day?
• Low back pain is a daily limitation on what you can do?
• Have a feeling of stiffness or tightness that is gradually getting worse?
• Been advised to do strengthening exercises to help your problem but not sure what to do or how?
• Feel intimidated at a gym, or have no desire to go into that environment?

Or call 1300 730 574 and speak with a our friendly staff to find out more!

What exactly is Physio Group Treatment?

These groups have until recently been called ‘Pilates equipment groups’. So why the name change?

The Private Health Insurance reforms prompted the change, but the old group name really didn’t tell the whole story anyway.

Our new name ‘Physio Group Treatment’ is a much more accurate title for these sessions.  After all, it is all three of those elements.

It is physiotherapy. It is done in a group. The purpose is treatment.

The groups are not only supervised by a physio.

The physio is not only present but they are an active participant in the group, coaching you, correcting your technique, offering advice and progressing your exercises as appropriate for each individual.

Your individual programme that you perform in a group is created together with your physio according to your individual problems, needs and goals. This is all established at the beginning of the process with initial assessment.

Your programme will be different to everyone else in the group.

It may include:

• strengthening 
• flexibility
• graded progression of movement
• coordination and proprioception exercise
• tendon loading exercises
• balance work
• sports-specific exercises
  

It all depends on YOU and what YOU need.

Your programme may well consist of exercises performed on Pilates-style equipment, or exercises with a Pilates influence.

The amount of exercise with a Pilates flavour in your programme will depend on what your condition or what you are attending for.

For more information on Pilates, you can find out more here.

The groups are small of no more than 6 and often less

The group size allows the physio to provide support and guidance for all participants.

These are not classes, it is group treatment as everyone is doing something different with their own individualised programme.

In order to attract a rebate from your private health insurance under the 560 group treatment code, there needs to be a condition being treated to allow rebates to be paid.

Fitness and well-being are great reasons to attend our groups.

The literature is full of evidence in support of movement, exercise, strengthening, maintaining flexibility and the social benefits of attending a group session.

However, if you are attending for fitness and well-being, any physio group does not attract a rebate from your health insurance under the group treatment code.

It is worth exploring if you have entitlements in your private health cover for wellness programmes or fitness programmes. This will be a separate entity to the 560 physio group treatment code.

For more information on the Private Health Insurance reforms coming into effect on April 1 2019, please click here.

Here’s how to get started

Step one – Initial assessment with physiotherapist

With your help, we need to answer some questions:

• what is your goal from doing the sessions?
• are physio group treatment sessions the best way to achieve that goal?
• are you ready to start groups now or is individual treatment required first for the most effective management of the problem?
• are there safety concerns or precautions that we need to consider?
• are there particular exercises that we must avoid?

Step two – Get a measure of how you are now

One of the important parts of the initial assessment is to establish baselines of how you are now, and get measures that we can use to see your change or improvement.

As part of the preparation, we may decide check your deep stabilising muscles or ‘core’ muscles. As the ‘core’ muscles are deep muscle layers, it is often hard to know if you are contracting them effectively and accurately.

To help with this, Real Time Ultrasound Imaging allows you and the physiotherapist to watch as you contract and relax these muscles.

Step three – Working out a plan of attack

Together, you and your physio will work out a programme of exercises during individual physio treatment sessions.  Usually, you will use three individual sessions to do this. 

Your programme will be individual – it will depend on the goals that you are looking to achieve.

You will practice this programme together so that you know what you are doing before you enter the treatment groups. 

Our main priority is that you will be safe using equipment, and doing the exercises correctly so that you get the best benefit from your time and effort.

Step four – Starting the physio treatment group sessions

When you are confident with what you are doing, and we are satisfied that you are ready, you will be able to progress to the group sessions.

The timetable for the groups is here – there are many options including after hours and Saturday mornings.

Expect in your first few groups that you will need extra help while you get used to your programme.

We expect that you will need it, so we will keep a extra close eye on you initially. We don’t want you to feel overwhelmed!

Schedule a time to speak directly with one of our physios to discuss your specific situation and find out if we can help!

Or call 1300 730 574 and speak with a our friendly staff to find out more!