What role does an occupational therapist play when working with people to select the best product?

Occupational therapists are interested in helping people to do what they want and need to do, within their individual context. Because of this, we help people to look past the bells and whistles of each individual product and focus on what works for them. We also know a lot about the human body and how things can change with different conditions, which means that we can give suggestions about what item or movement will be easier, or what could lead to pain or fatigue over time.

For home modifications, we look at all the different activities that a person does – or wants to do – at home, and what parts of the environment make those activities difficult. From there, we use our knowledge of accessibility and assistive technology options to recommend the modifications that will work for that person.

How does someone organise a home assessment with an occupational therapist​?

Occupational therapists are interested in helping people to do what they want and need to do, within their individual context. Because of this, we help people to look past the bells and whistles of each individual product and focus on what works for them. We also know a lot about the human body and how things can change with different conditions, which means that we can give suggestions about what item or movement will be easier, or what could lead to pain or fatigue over time.

For home modifications, we look at all the different activities that a person does – or wants to do – at home, and what parts of the environment make those activities difficult. From there, we use our knowledge of accessibility and assistive technology options to recommend the modifications that will work for that person.

How did LifeTec work with Ann to gain freedom and achieve greater independence?

LifeTec uses an evidence based approach to support people we work with. This involved helping Ann ‘IMAGINE’ her goals and ways of achieving these. Ann was interested in being able to independently transport herself and her mobility aid. We helped her identify what was preferred and the ‘must have’ features, based on their abilities.

We then supported her to ‘SEEK’ options suitable for meeting her goals and discussed the benefits and limitations of the assistive technology options. For Ann, this involved discussing a variety of scooter transportation options such as trailers, hoists and lifters either retrofitted or pre-modified.

LifeTec then assisted Ann to ‘CHOOSE’ the preferred option through trying shortlisted options to see how they would really work for Ann to meet her specific goals. For Ann, she chose the Nissan Cube and we assisted her to access government funding (Vehicle Options Subsidy Scheme) to support her to purchase this.

The final phase was the ‘LIVE’ phase where we provided training to help her use the technology safely and as effectively as possible. For Ann, this involved delivery of the vehicle and hand over, where she could practice using the lifter to get her mobility aid in and out of the vehicle.

What are the top technologies used by Ann? What do these offer her?

Ann required an electric scooter to help her travel long distances to visit shops, get her to appointments and other community spaces. This type of assistive technology offered her the ability to leave her home, drive to her location and have the mobility to access the community environment.

What is involved in identifying each individual’s requirements?

This is a process starting with the discussion of goals, assessment of a person’s physical abilities and then trialling assistive technologies. During these different phases, requirements for the individual are  identified and prioritised. This is a collaborative process which involves the person we are supporting, the LifeTec therapist and sometimes additional support people such as other health professionals, family, carers or friends.

In my 31 years of practice as a physiotherapist it has been obvious that there could be a link between obesity and chronic pain. It could be any pain but clinically I have noticed that spinal pain or lower limb pain may contribute more than other areas.

Chronic pain can be classified as pain lasting more than 6 months. Acute pain that has not been resolved will turn into chronic pain. Continuing to exercise through pain without proper modifications or actually doing nothing but complete rest with an injury can mean your pain may turn into a chronic condition.

I am going to focus more on the inactive person in pain. It is essential that after an injury or episode of pain that there is a gradual return to normal movement. Often when we focus on the pain too much we experience a heightened level of pain. Add to that painkillers and our body is unable to resolve the pain naturally. Now I am not saying to not take painkillers if you require them but often people in pain will continue to take painkillers when they should be weaning off. Some painkillers can be addictive and stopping taking them can make us think that the pain returns worse than it was before because we have become so reliant on them.

So you injure your lower back and your GP says to go home and rest, lie down and do nothing. This may be helpful for the first 24 hours but you must get up and move. Resting after injury means Relative Rest and not complete Rest.  Relative rest means that we continue to move as much as the pain allows. This movement actually helps with the healing process. As our pain lessens we then should be learning to activate muscles correctly that may have been inhibited by our pain. Retraining the muscles to work in the correct way and in co operation with other muscles is essential for normalising movement and actually helps to reduce pain.

So we can see that resting completely will not help us to get rid of our pain. If we think about the person who after injury stops moving and rests completely, they never learn how to reactivate the correct muscles and so they cannot possible move efficiently. They become tight and weak in muscles because of their inactivity and so this causes more Pain! It becomes a vicious cycle and starts to affect mental wellbeing also. People with pain as a result of inactivity can often become depressed.

Depressed people often turn to food as it gives them immediate comfort. When being inactive there is not much else to do but eat and sometimes even drinking alcohol can become a problem. Screen time often increases also. You may have heard the term that "Sitting is the new Smoking”. Well it is true. Sitting all day can lead to Obesity!

So if you experience Pain. Make sure that you see a Physiotherapist experienced in not just helping you to relieve your pain but getting your body working optimally again so that you can get back to enjoying your life.

Nobody wants to be Fat and in Pain. Lets make sure it doesn’t happen to you.

Written by Angela Melit of the Pain Slayers at Graceville Physiotherapy

If you have a mobile phone, laptop or tablet and you get neck, upper back or lower back pain chances are you may be a Tech Wreck. I call a Tech Wreck any neck pain that is caused by using these pieces of technology.

In my practice we see many clients showing signs of Tech Wreck.  Susan is a client of ours who comes to mind.  Susan is a Tech Wreck! Susan is a professional in her late 20’s. She spends most of her day on her computer for work. She has deadlines that she has to meet and so can spend up to 3 hours at a time without getting up from her desk.

Susan is also into Facebook, Instagram and Snap chat. She belongs to many Facebook groups for work and to catch up with other special interest groups and loves to post to her friends on Instagram and Snap chat. She texts a lot on her mobile phone as her friends communicate this way also.

When we first met Susan we looked at her posture. She looked overweight, had hunched shoulders and her chin poked forward. We stood her up against the wall and her head did not reach the wall without her tipping her head back. Her stomach poked out also and her knees rolled in.

Susan was getting constant headaches and at the end of the day she was always exhausted and this was starting to impact on her social life. She had pain turning her head and looking up and it was also affecting her sleep. Many of you could be in the same boat if any of this resonates with you.

We decided that Susan would benefit from our “BodyFix” program. We empowered Susan to take her health into her own hands. Susan became the instigator of her program and we became the facilitators. Susan was taught how her body should work so that she could then make important decisions on what she did with her body during the day.

First of all we relieved Susan’s pain and helped her to understand where her pain was coming from. This way she was empowered to eliminate the causes.

Susan asked for a stand up desk that would allow her to stand up while on the computer and because it was adjustable she could lower it to sit for some periods of time also.  She no longer looked down at her screen but looked straight ahead. She used eye drops to help her avoid getting eye strain from too much screen time.

Susan decided to limit her time on her tablet and mobile phone to 10 mins at a time. She used an alarm to tell her when her 10 minutes was up. She could always go back to it later on for another 10 minutes after a short break.

Her life was starting to get back in order and she was feeling strong and confident about her future. We taught her self massage techniques to use when she was starting to feel any strain and she had a list of stretches that she performed daily to counteract the tightness in her muscles. We also gave Susan a strengthening program to start with. Using this as a starting point Susan was then able to find the right exercises for her. Susan was confident in attending gym classes as she now knew what her body could do and what she liked to do.

Susan would come in every 4 to 5 weeks or so for a tweaking of her “BodyFix” program so that we could then teach her more about her body and keep her feeling Strong , Healthy and Active, and also to get on top of any niggles that could potentially turn into problems later on.

Interestingly when we first saw Susan she looked overweight and sluggish. A few weeks into her program she no longer looked overweight. She had transformed into a picture of Health and Vitality. She was actually never overweight at all she just looked it because of her poor posture.

Here are the 6 ways that Susan transformed herself from a Tech Wreck into a person bursting with Health, Strength and Vitality.

As soon as Susan felt any inkling of a headache coming on she would lie on her Neck Tek, which I also call the headache remover. If your headache is a result of neck strain then this simple device corrects the muscle action (BodyFix). It will even work if you just lie in it for 10 minutes and do nothing as it corrects body position and facilitates the correct muscles to work.

Susan did not sit or stand at her computer for more than an hour at a time. She had an alarm to tell her when to get up and/or move . This then stops the accumulation of stress in certain muscles.

Susan limited her mobile phone and tablet usage to 10 mins at a time

Susan performed specific neck stretches gently every hour to stop accumulation of tension in muscles

Susan performed specific posture strengthening exercises every morning and night which only took her 5 minutes to do. This then got her muscles ready to take on the load she was going to put on them during the day.

Susan made the decision on which exercise she would do because she knew her body better than anyone else.

In this day and age every single person needs their own “BodyFix” program because everybody deserves to have a Strong, Healthy Active body.

Come and see a Pain Slayer for your BodyFix program.

Watch this video to get a simple foam roller technique to trigger point your neck, to relieve neck  pain, fast!

You will also learn how to loosen your midback which is another key element to relieving pain in your neck and upper back.

Stay tuned to the end where you will be shown some simple ways to loosen the muscles in your legs which ties in for an all over body massage maintenance

Learning to foam roll is a fantastic way for self-management of those tight and painful muscles all over your body and relieving those stiff and sore joints in your upper back. Its such a simple tool that you can take with you anywhere and use whenever you want. Use it when you are travelling or strapped for time. You can roll as part of a daily regime or get benefits for 2-3 short session a week.

It is so simple you can miss the benefits so give it a go today!

I am sure that if you are a runner or were a runner and have recently had a baby you would be aware that a high profile trainer (Michelle Bridges) was back running just 3 weeks after having her first baby. Michelle seems like Super Woman and all of us would like to be like her! Why would her pelvic floor be different than ours? Surely we can all run 3 weeks after giving birth also.

Let me introduce you to a client of mine. Her name is Michelle also. Michelle had her first baby at 30 years of age. She used to run for fitness a couple of times a week and play touch football once a week. Michelle ran while she was pregnant up until she was about 6 months, however she stopped because she started to get some lower abdominal pain and started to get some leakage after running more than 2kms. She always found that other forms of exercise just didn’t do it for her so after having her baby she was keen to start running as soon as she could. Michelle had no complications during the birth except for a small vaginal tear which needed 2 stitches and healed quickly. She had some urinary incontinence immediately after birth which lasted about a week. She noticed it when she laughed, coughed or sneezed. Because she had no problems with any leakage after a few weeks Michelle thought that her pelvic floor was back to normal.

Michelle had her abdominals checked for separation after birth and was told that she had only one finger separation between her muscles. Because she only had slight separation she was told that there was no need to wear any form of support garment.

Our Michelle decided if Michelle Bridges could start running again so soon after giving birth, so could she. She was fit and healthy and so decided when her baby was 4 weeks old that she would start running just 2km.

After her first run Michelle felt a little “weird” in the lower back but did not think much of it. Two days later she went for another run, however once again she felt a little uncomfortable. With Michelle Bridges as her motivation she decided to keep going however during her third 2km run she started to get some lower back pain and felt that weird sensation come around into her abdominals. She also noticed that she had some leakage. She started to realise that the running may be causing the pain.

Michelle was really disappointed as she really wanted to be able to run. It was an exercise she loved doing and importantly it a great stress reliever for her. With worries about her lack of fitness, weight gain and the stress of being a new mum, it wasn’t long before the whole family unit suffered. She felt unhealthy, unfit and fat.

Michelle happened to see one of our posts on Facebook about getting back into shape after having a baby and thought that one of our “Body Fix” programs could work for her. Michelle booked in for an appointment. We helped Michelle develop a plan which directed her towards her end goal of being able to run again without damaging anything in the process. She could see that there was light at the end of the tunnel!

Initially we were able to work out that Michelle needed to strengthen certain muscles, relax other muscles and allow her pelvic region to heal before embarking on an exercise program involving running. We gave Michelle a step by step program and educated her so that she was empowered to make decisions about her plan that suited her best.

 It may not be running, it might just be getting Strong Active and Pain free.

You can book an appointment with a Pain Slayer online or call 32781186. 

Insurers can be hard work.

In the first days following your accident, make daily notes of all pains and discomfort your injuries cause.

For at least the first month or two make notes daily on areas such as:

Again write down the small details. You may suffer niggling pain that seems inconsequential at the time but may become important when you trying to gain compensation.

Taking notes on your injury will make it easier for you (and possibly your lawyer) to later describe to an insurance company how much and what kind of pain you were in, and for how long.

Writing down your different injuries will also help you remember to report them to a doctor or other medical provider when you receive treatment.

A relatively small snap of the neck, for example, may not seem worth mentioning…

…but it might help:

• the doctor; and
• the insurance company

…understand why your bad back pain developed two to three days later, or several weeks, after the accident.

As the saying goes, a picture is worth a thousand words…and then some. Photos are useful because they…

…preserve evidence of the extent of the injury

…show the damage better than you can describe them

…are difficult to contradict. An insurer will find it harder to deny the evidence in a photograph. 

Wounds and injuries heal. Without photographs it will be difficult later to convince an insurance company in the ways and to the degree you claimed.

Failing to seek immediate treatment can lead an insurance company to believe that your injuries were not that serious, or that you made them up entirely.

...because of your injuries. 

Other important notes to make that don’t relate to your economic loss but rather cover your general loss of enjoyment of life include missed:

Make note of these factors too. They can often be overlooked in a compensation claim and can be financially compensated for.

Return to the scene of the accident as soon as possible to locate any evidence and photograph any conditions you believe may have contributed to the accident.

Draw a diagram of where key things were/are located such as:

Having a witness on your side is powerful.

Witnesses may be able to describe details that confirm what your believed happened. This backs up your story…

…and ensures that the insurer can’t dismiss your claim.

Here’s how to gather evidence from witnesses so that the insurer cannot disregard their statement. 

Start taking notes about conversations (telephone, in person or emails) that you have witnesses, insurance companies, lawyers and medical personnel (such as other doctors, nurses or admin staff).

Make written notes of the:

• date
• time
• people involved and
• contents

...of every conversation you have about your treatment or complaint. 

This last point is less about note-taking and more about taking an extra action that covers all your bases so no insurance company can discount you as a liar.

In the course of your claim, you will likely be told or promised something or given some information that you want to make sure isn’t denied at a later date

…such as…

…the witness statements or

…results of tests

…when you expect to hear the result of your complaint.

Immediately after the conversation, send a letter confirming what the person told you. The letter does not have to be elaborate, just a brief restatement of what was said.

Make a copy for your files before sending it on.

A sample email or letter can be shown below

The claims process can be a battle of determination. But with these notes, you will be holding all the cards.

We are back again with the final part of our four-part series on quantum or how much is your claim worth.

As discussed in Part 1, Part 2 and Part 3, many factors influence the amount of compensation a person can receive.

In this article, we learn about the final factor (or head of damage in legal-speak), known as pain and suffering.

For the injured person, the suffering post-incident can feel like it has the most significant impact on their life.

The hardest part is quantifying that intangible pain left after an injury. While difficult, it shouldn’t be overlooked.

Pain and suffering damages (aka general damages) refer to an award given by the court to the plaintiff for physical and emotional pain due to injury, illness, or loss. 

These damages are not the same as economic damages, which reimburse the injured person financially but are meant to assist them with the pain inflicted after an incident.

Typically, claims for pain and suffering are for such things as:

• Actual pain and suffering experienced
• The pain and suffering you will encounter in the future
• Loss of enjoyment of life
• The inability to participate in your pre-injury sports, hobbies, education and recreational activities
• The shortening of your life
• Grief over the death of a loved one

Unfortunately, just because you may have experienced pain and suffering does not mean you will necessarily be entitled to compensation for it.

The awards for pain and suffering depends very much on the circumstances surrounding the incident in which you were injured.

For example, being injured at work can result in different compensation entitlements to being injured in a car accident or a fall in a shopping centre. 

This difference is because there are different laws apply to each type of accident.

The pain and suffering of an individual can be subjective and very difficult to prove.

Medical experts are typical witnesses in these cases and often pivotal to a cases success. 

This is because they can determine the impact the injuries may have had on the injured person's livelihood. They can do this based on an Injury Scale Value (ISV) scale (see below).

However, the court takes into consideration other factors in its analysis, including:

• The extent of the injury, as well as the medical diagnosis and prognosis.
• Length of time that the symptoms have been presenting.
• Physical or mental limitations in the plaintiff’s daily life (e.g., work, school, everyday tasks).
• Accounts of other individuals with similar injuries, and the extent of their reported pain and suffering.

Without getting too complex, the ISV scale is used to calculate pain and suffering damages in Queensland.

The scale regulates the award given for the areas of compensation based on the individual's level of injury.

Each injury has a corresponding ISV range. For example, a minor injury such as whiplash might have an ISV range of 5 – 10. Whereas, a severe injury such as quadriplegia may be at the top of the scale at 100.

Medical experts can help determine where a person might sit on this range.

Once the ISV range is known, then that range corresponds to a monetary amount on the scale.

For bicycle injury claims, your ISV range can be determined from the civil liabilities act Schedule 4.

These can be very subjective and confusing, so we recommend seeking expert advice before lodging any claim.

When filing a claim that involves pain and suffering damages, you may wish to follow these guidelines:

• Try to be as specific as possible when presenting your condition- vague conditions that can’t be proven will not result in an award of compensation
• Make a log of your injuries before and after the incident - this will help to determine how your pain and suffering is related to the event, whether it be a car accident, slip and fall case, or another type of personal injury
• Keep all written legal documents, such as police reports, medical receipts and bills, pay slips, and other records that can be used as evidence

Be sure to read up on the other areas of compensation available to you to maximise your overall settlement amount. Click the links below to read them all.

Without stating the obvious too much, medical expenses relate to the costs of rehabilitation following an injury.

The expenses include both past fees that were already paid for, as well as future medical costs.

As is the case in every other area of compensation, the amount that can be recovered will vary depending on the individual’s treatment plan and care needs.

Some real-life case examples have been provided.

Some typical medical expenses that are included in a compensation claim include:

For this reason, it's essential to be very thorough when documenting injuries in your claim file so that it is possible to calculate damages to account for future problems.

It is also important to attend all medical appointments or therapy sessions.

Proving these expenses may require the help of an expert medical professional. Usually, thorough documentation is needed to calculate the total costs of medical treatment. These may include the presentation of various items of evidence in court, such as:

• Hospital bills;
• Chiropractor or medical therapy costs;
• Medical treatment receipts;
• Pharmaceutical bills; or
• Any other documents showing the costs of the medical expenses

Keeping a record of the medical expenses (treatment costs, medications, assistive technology) you had due to your injuries is very important, as it can mean the difference between having a claim for care and assistance, or not having a claim at all.

Keep a spreadsheet that details the following:

• Type of service or item
• Service or item provider (doctor surgery or pharmacy)
• Date of service/purchase
• Cost of service/item
• Will the service/item be required in the future and how often

• Buy all of your prescriptions/dressings/painkillers etc. from the one pharmacy and ask your pharmacist to record all of your purchases.  When it comes time to claim your damages, you can simply obtain a printout from the pharmacy;
• Keep receipts for any purchases that you have made;
• Photocopy or scan those receipts, in case they get lost or destroyed;
• Consistently fill out the table as each service is provided.

Don't miss out on other aspects of your claims...

...read the other blogs in the series below.