Now that we’re through our Survival Mode series, I’m going to go through my list of post requests and start working through them. As always - if you’ve got a question you’d like to see a post written about, feel free to send me an email or bring it up during an appointment and I’ll add your request to my list!
First up - what exactly is a rehabilitation specialist and how is that different from manual osteopathy?
Personally, I like the MedlinePlus write up about it: Rehabilitation is care that is focused on helping you to get back, keep, acquire, or improve abilities that you need for daily life. These may be physical, mental/emotional, and/or cognitive skills like thinking and learning. You may have never had these specific abilities, may have lost them due to disease or injury, or you may just wish to improve upon skills and abilities you already currently have (optimization). Osteopathy, like massage therapy and cognitive behavioural therapy, is a modality that I use to accomplish some of that rehabilitation.
When you get rehabilitation, you often have a team of different health care providers helping you. They will work with you to figure out your needs, goals, and treatment plan. The types of treatments that may be in a treatment plan include, but are not limited to:
Assistive devices, which are tools, equipment, and products that help people with disabilities move and function
Cognitive rehabilitation therapy to help you relearn or improve skills such as thinking, learning, memory, planning, and decision making
Mental health counselling
Music or art therapy to help you express your feelings, improve your thinking, and develop social connections
Nutritional counselling
Occupational therapy to help you with your daily activities
Physical therapy to help your strength, mobility, and fitness
Recreational therapy to improve your emotional well-being through arts and crafts, games, relaxation training, and animal-assisted therapy
Speech-language therapy to help with speaking, understanding, reading, writing and swallowing
Treatment for pain
Vocational rehabilitation to help you build skills for going to school or working at a job
I have a master’s degree in rehabilitation science. I’ve also done my best to get certified in as many different modalities as I can and develop my own areas of expertise so that I can provide a number of services and treatments for my clients myself. I know what it’s like to have to go to so many different places and try to juggle so many different appointments while also trying to work or go to school or heal from your injuries. I try to make the process as smooth as possible for folks. It also helps me to know when you might benefit from a particular modality, therapy, or practitioner that I don’t provide but can send you to see.
Billing and insurance coverage wise - it depends on what you need for a treatment. As a general rule of thumb, what the majority of treatment techniques used during the appointment are are what I have to bill for. If you came in for physical rehabilitation, this may mean that your receipt will be for manual osteopathy or massage therapy; if you came in for cognitive rehabilitation your receipt will be for cognitive behavioural therapy, etc.
You can read more about it here:
https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/rehabilitation
If you have any questions about the specific modalities I can directly provide myself, or want to sit and chat about what a rehabilitation program might look like for you, you know where to find me!
Til next time, Folks!