Physiotherapy

Our orthopaedic physiotherapists provides a rehabilitation service for people who have experienced an orthopaedic injury or who are recovering from orthopaedic surgery.  We work with people to deliver goal-focused and time-limited rehabilitation. This can include:

• Hip and knee osteoarthritis
• Post operative rehabilitation for total hip arthroplasty, total knee arthroplasty, ligament reconstructions and arthroscopic procedures
• Fracture management
• Return to work and sport post injury.

Barwon Health can offer consultations with our specialist trained women’s and pelvic health physiotherapists. These therapists have extensive experience and knowledge of women’s health through all stages of life, from newborns and adolescents through to child-bearing years and beyond.
Common conditions managed by our physiotherapists include:

• Pelvic floor disorders such as prolapse and incontinence
• Antenatal conditions such as pelvic pain, lower back pain, carpal tunnel and other musculoskeletal conditions related to pregnancy
• Postnatal conditions such as abdominal muscle separation, pelvic floor concerns and musculoskeletal pain
• Diabetes during pregnancy
• Chronic pelvic pain
• Sexual dysfunction
• Women’s cancer including breast and gynaecological.

You may have a mix of phone, telehealth and in-person appointments.

Our paediatric physiotherapists are trained and experienced in the management of:

• Plagiocephaly
• Torticollis
• Gross motor delays
• Neurodevelopmental assessment
• Postural variations
• Developmental hip dysplasia

Physiotherapists will work with you to identify, treat and manage your child’s condition including creating an individualised program to work towards you and your child’s goals.

Our paediatric physiotherapists work out of the University Hospital Geelong and Barwon Health North.

To read some helpful fact sheets from the Victorian Paediatric Orthopaedic Network (VPON), please click here.

Pain Management Unit (PMU) physiotherapists look at how pain has affected movement, more specifically a person’s activity, function, social activities, relationships, community involvement, and exercise.

Treatment may include:

• Goal setting and making a plan to integrate physical activity into life
• Developing problem solving skills to reduce the impacts of flare ups
• Identify avoided activities and encourage the return of these activities in a gradual sense through strategies such as pacing
• Education about persisting pain and how to learn to move confidently again
• Specific graded exercises where needed.

Physiotherapy at the PMU does not involve:

• Regular sessions focused on delivering passive modalities such as massage, manual therapy, dry needling and electrotherapy.

Groups
The PMU offers a range of groups for our patients depending on their needs.

PACERS: Physiotherapy led program over five weeks, incorporating individually prescribed exercise and pain education.

Pain Neuroscience Education: This group explains the neuroscience of chronic pain conditions and how people can harness strategies to help them learn to cope better with pain.

Sleep Management Group: The Sleep Management Group uses a CBT approach, which is the most effective treatment currently available to improve sleep. The majority of people completing this program substantially improve their sleep and many people no longer need sleeping tablets.

iRest Yoga Nidra: Integrative Restoration (iRest) or iRest Yoga Nidra is a modern, trauma-informed, secular adaptation of the ancient meditative practice of Yoga Nidra. Yoga Nidra is often referred to as “yogic sleep” or a structured rest practice; it is a practical way of training the mind and body to rest.

The PMU is a publically funded service, and operates in the state-wide referral criteria for specialist clinics. Please check https://src.health.vic.gov.au/specialities (under Chronic Pain) for more details.  The general criteria for an appropriate referral are listed below:

We accept referrals for persistent or chronic pain:

• That requires complex medication management
• Neuropathic pain
• In cancer survivors
• Post-surgical or post-traumatic pain
• Primary pain
• Secondary headache or orofacial pain
• Secondary musculoskeletal pain
• Visceral pain

AND meeting the referral criteria as outlined below:

• Persistent or chronic pain (> 3 months duration) with symptoms that impact on daily activities including impact on work, study, school or carer role
• Adequate trial of treatment in previous 12 months (exercise and analgesia)
• At risk of functional or psychological deterioration, or medication dependence
• Willing to explore living well with pain and is willing to learn to self-manage ongoing pain.

We will also accept referrals for acute pain conditions (such as complex neuropathic pain, or acute complex regional pain syndrome/CRPS) where early specialist management is critical. Please ensure your referral contains as much relevant information as able to enable us to triage these cases with the highest priority.

Referral to the Pain Management Unit is not appropriate for:

• Patients who are currently not willing to explore living well with pain and not willing to learn to self-manage ongoing pain
• Patients currently undertaking another chronic pain management program
• Patients who have already completed a multidisciplinary, comprehensive chronic pain management program or service for the same identifiable cause of pain where their clinical symptoms, or their readiness to undertake a chronic pain management program, remains unchanged
• Patients who only want an intervention such as an injection or dry needling.

Advanced practice physiotherapists (APPs) are experienced senior physiotherapists with extensive experience and additional training and/or qualifications.

In specialist clinics (outpatients), our APPs offer patients with musculoskeletal conditions timely access to expert assessment and management. Credentialed staff can help patients get faster access to investigations and surgical, neurological and physiotherapy services.

Our APPs work across the following services and clinics:

• Emergency Department
• Urgent Care Centre
• Osteoarthritis hip and knee service
• Neurosurgery access service
• Paediatric fracture clinic