Have you ever walked out of a consultation with a Practitioner and not been clear on what just happened or what the next step is? This is not having a treatment plan or not having it clearly explained…. it is frustrating and doesn’t give you confidence in that Practitioner.

 

People everyday consult with a large range of health practitioners including Allied Health (Osteopaths, Dietitians, Exercise Physiologist, Speech Pathologists) like us at Maroondah Osteo, your local GP, Optometrists or Audiologists and specialist Physicians like Orthopaedic Surgeons, Dermatologists or Cardiologists. All these professions will discuss with you a treatment plan – or plan of attack for your presenting compliant. Whenever you consult with any Health Professional you should always walk away knowing or working towards defining a diagnosis and therefore a treatment plan.

 

What is a treatment plan? A treatment plan refers to the specific goals you have for your health. It includes intervention or therapy which could include hands-on treatment, exercise rehab prescription, medications, advice or other forms of evidence based interventions that your Practitioner might use to help you reach these goals. Typically, a treatment plan is created early on in the therapeutic process, so you have a clear path and direction for achieving your health goal.

 

It is part of a Practitioners duty of care to explain what they are treating, what interventions/treatments are available/required to treat the condition and the approximate frequency and duration of treatment as well as explaining to you what the outcome of that treatment is likely to be.

 

Our practitioners at Maroondah Osteo know how important it is to define and explain to you the tissue causing the symptom, the process that is happening to your body, what the best form of treatment is and approximately how long it will take to heal. Sometimes our Practitioners will provide you with a written plan to outline this strategy for ease of communication.

 

A good example of this is with an ACL knee injury, when we watch our favourite AFL team and one of our players goes down with a suspected ACL – we think to ourselves “well that’s him for the year” – many of us know the treatment plan for an ACL for a professional AFL player is surgery and then 9-12 months of exercise rehab. But do you know what to expect when you wake up with a sore neck? What tissue is it that is causing the pain – what will help relieve the pain and how long will I be sore for? Well its our job to diagnose and explain this to you. It’s a priority for us that you walk away feeling informed and armed with a plan to achieve your wanted outcome from treatment.

 

So please never hesitate to ask any of your Practitioners to clarify their treatment plan and you will walk away from that appointment feeling confident in your road to recovery ahead!!