How do we personalise Physiotherapy? (Part 2)

A blog by Alison Wilkinson, Physiotherapist and member of the It's All About People Personalisation Team. Alison shares her thoughts on two of her passions; cake and helping people!

Throughout 2023, my colleague Nicola Bussey and I have been working with the It's All About People Personalisation Team to explore ways to embed personalisation approaches within an outpatient environment. Here are some of my thoughts...

Physios love cake - as Physiotherapists we are generally a nosey bunch, we really like to get to know our patients. Where have they come from? Where on their health journey are they? What do they know, or want to know? Do they even know what a Physio does?

We gather ingredients for our person cake - The individual leads the story because their particular problem and understanding of it is unique to them. This shared conversation is interlaced with helping the individual with some knowledge about their problem, or gently challenging some of their beliefs from an evidence base. We get to ask what really matters to the individual, discover their story, and what they believe will help them.

Their cake may need a bit of a mix - what I mean is, we may need to explain anatomy with models, videos, or simply getting down on the floor and showing them.

We need to ask “How can I best explain things to you?”

The person might have very definite ideas or expectations about what will help. For example; “Tell me why you think that particular treatment, investigation, surgery (etc) is the right one for me?” or “What do you understand about what is happening to my knee?”.

What ingredients do you want to add to ensure your cake rises? This conversation helps us both identify what influences their problem and what other factors, such as their work, social situation, and other medical problems, may impact their health journey and need support.

The cherries on their cake - are there a lot or a little, or have they got mixed fruit?Combined with a physical examination, individual goals and a treatment plan are created together. For those who are overwhelmed, we will need to think differently about how we build this plan. We need to ensure they feel it is achievable, step by step.

How best can we bake our cake to make sure it’s successful? Every individual has the best recipe to improving their health if we listen to their ingredients because, after all, no two cakes ever come out the same. We need to understand our expectations of each other and the contributing factors that will give us the best chance of getting the outcome required.

If you would like to know more about personalisation within Physiotherapy, please get in touch via Alison.Wilkinson1@ulh.nhs.uk or to discuss Personalisation for your team, please contact us at lhnt.itsallaboutpeople@nhs.net.

Read How do we personalise Physiotherapy (Part 1)