Most people who work in healthcare understand that our health is interconnected between bodily systems, particularly when it comes to chronic, non communicable diseases like heart disease, diabetes and musculoskeletal pain.
The big problem is delivering integrated and personalised care.
The knee specialist looks at your knee, the heart specialist look at your heart etc and because of the structural and resource constraints, trying to join them up can be tricky.
For a long time I have tried to offer a more integrated approach to my assessment and care. It’s why I have longer appointments than average to really get to know patients and find out what makes them tick.
What their lifestyle is like and what barriers they have to improve things and of course, how motivated they are to change things.
I commonly see issues like stress, lack of sleep, too much or too little activity, poor nutrition choices impacting on the musculoskeletal conditions people present with.
I’ve decided to start the process of more Lifestyle Medicine (yes I know it’s a problematic title) and Health Coach training so I can integrate what I have learned from my Physio and Yoga training and experience over the years.
And I’ve completed my first intro course which consolidated a lot of how I already practice and taught me many new things.
Lots more to learn but I’m feeling very excited!