Moving beyond injury

FOR many Jamaicans, physiotherapy may bring to mind patients recovering from accident-related injuries. But University Hospital of the West Indies (UHWI) is seeking to broaden that understanding, highlighting the various services offered to help patients regain independence in their everyday lives. On September 7, the UHWI Physiotherapy Department will showcase its services during Open Day when the public will be able to tour the facility, interact with physiotherapists, and learn more about the range of treatments available.

“We have mainly patients with back pain, and joint pain… that would be our leading management. Then we mainly look at broken bones, people who have been in accidents, multiple types of accidents like slip and fall, but that’s not all we do,” said Dr Dionne Danvers-Bennett, director of the department. According to her, the unit treats a wide range of medical conditions, varying from orthopaedic rehabilitation to adult and paediatric neuro-rehabilitation, sports medicine, and even burn care management.

However, she noted that the hospital could not yet handle severe burn cases. “We also work with women who are pregnant and prepare them for childbirth...those are called Lamaze classes. For people who have pelvic inflammatory disease, we treat that too, and that’s a special branch of physiotherapy that we offer.

There’s ergonomics as well, which is for people who are taught how to function properly at work after an injury. If, for instance, they had a back injury and they’re returning to duty, we would evaluate their station at work and make recommendations for modification,” noted Danvers-Bennett. A patient at University Hospital of the West Indies Physiotherapy Department receives strength training on his leg.

That service, she pointed out, is also offered for homes, telling the Jamaica Observer that members of the team assist with the retrofitting process. “So if you’re now confined to a wheelchair, we would have to come to your house, measure the width of the door, the incline of the ramp for you to access in and out of your house. We also look at modification of your bathroom to ensure that the rails are there for you to be able to function and do your activities of daily living,” she explained.

Another unique programme highlighted by Danvers-Bennett was the department’s cardio rehab programme, provided to patients who have undergone …