Here at Connect Physio Co, we are happy to be the first to say that often when presented with the option of telehealth physiotherapy services, people can be more than a bit sceptical. But people are more often than not surprised by just how much they can get out of a telehealth session.
Let's be real, when you go to see a physiotherapist, it's their education and knowledge that you need. You could realistically go and see a massage therapist without the same wait or cost associated with it if you just wanted a massage.
The difference is the years of university education and clinical experience. Physiotherapists are not just glorified massage therapists, and quite frankly, of all of the things we can do in a session, the "hands-on" component makes up one (usually small) portion of it. The best evidence we have available backs up what we've known for decades - that the "active" treatment (or the hands-off work) is what gets you your best results.
I often like to explain to patients in session the difference between active (what we help you to do) and passive (what we do to you) treatments is like this:
Imagine your home has a big hole in the roof. Every time it rains, you get a huge puddle on your floor. Every time there's bad weather, you have to spend time, effort and probably eventually money to try and clean up. But theyn the floor looks clean again and you don't have to think about it again until next time in rains when the cycle starts all over again.
Instead, wouldn't it be better to just put in the hard work and fix the roof?
When you find that "the best part of physio is when they give me a massage" or "I'm always so tight, I just need some hands-on work for relief" - then we might be able to help you more than you even bargained for via telehealth. We can help you fix the roof (what we'd term as the underlying cause).
And just because we're face-to-face via a computer rather than in the same room, doesn't mean that there aren't manual therapies we can't help you with either - we can help walk you through effective ways to give you relief from a range of conditions either individually or with the help of someone else who's there with you.
At the end of the day, telehealth has a lot of evidence to back it up, it's surprisingly effective for most people who try it, you have the same access to the knowledge and clinical expeirence of your physiotherapist and it hands-down beats a week long wait to been seen otherwise any day of the week!
Most people are pleasantly surprised by just how much they can get out of a telehealth physiotherapy session. The evidence says we don't need to be in the same room as you to see similar results for a range of conditions. A helpful new way to get physiotherapy services to where they're needed.
References
Ceprnja, D., Clark, T., Young, J., Lee, R., Flynn, K., & Maka, K. (2022). Evaluating experiences, usability and patient satisfaction with telehealth for tertiary outpatient physiotherapy services during COVID-19: A mixed-methods study. Physiotherapy Theory and Practice, 1-9.
Lawford, B. J., Delany, C., Bennell, K. L., & Hinman, R. S. (2018). “I was really sceptical... But it worked really well”: a qualitative study of patient perceptions of telephone-delivered exercise therapy by physiotherapists for people with knee osteoarthritis. Osteoarthritis and cartilage, 26(6), 741-750.
Ziani, M., Trépanier, E., & Goyette, M. (2022). Voices of Teens and Young Adults on the Subject of Teleconsultation in the COVID-19 Context. Journal of Patient Experience, 9.