Belief in one’s personal capabilities are conducive to achieving success and provides additional energy for action – Joanna Szczepańska-Gieracha et al 2020

Self Efficacy

Self efficacy in physiotherapy is how we consider our own part in our recovery. In reality it’s all down to you. Online physiotherapy has been evidenced to encourage a higher rate of self direction or self efficacy than face to face physio. That’s because by taking out the face to face meeting, it removes the reliance on the physiotherapist and the expectation that they are going to perform some sort of magic trick that will fix you instantly. 

Support

That’s not to say the expectation is you do everything on your own, you need the support and knowledge to know how to get better. You might also need reassurance that you are doing it right and further guidance when it’s not working. 

A good example of how rehabilitation works is in the scenario of providing care at home. Some companies provide support workers, others provide care assistants. Both are brilliant and very necessary before any of my esteemed colleagues get upset!. A support worker might encourage someone to make themselves a cup of tea and support them to do so, a care worker will make the tea for the person and bring it to them. The second person becomes reliant on the carer. The first person becomes self sufficient and regains some of their independence. This is self efficacy. 

Physiotherapy

When you work with us online, we help you firstly to diagnose what is going on. Secondly why it might be happening and thirdly, what you can do to improve it. If it’s something you can rehabilitate or improve through exercise then we’ll put together a plan for you. We’ll then guide you through that plan and set you up your own patient portal. 

Instead of hastily grabbed generic sheets, you get easy to follow videos. Yes it’s up to you to do the work (that’s where the self efficacy bit comes in)  but you can check in with your physio with messages and book a weekly follow up appointment until your both happy that things are improving. In the NHS you get discharged, with us, you can book an appointment at anytime so there’s always peace of mind that someone is there for you. 

Better

How can this produce better results than face to face appointments? Well the research shows that because you are not expecting the physio to provide some miracle hands on treatment (they sadly don’t exist otherwise physios would be very rich, not working for the NHS!). As you have had the time to talk properly to your physio and understand your condition, you are much more likely to see the benefit of doing the work. 

Our initial consultations are up to 45 minutes and additional appointments are up to 30 minutes, we then book out the diary so our physiotherapists have time to make notes and update you patient portal. 

Of course unlike the NHS we have the freedom to make your appointments longer if required. We know that quicker intervention can lead to quicker recovery and return to normal activities of daily living. 

Take Control

So if you are ready to take control of your recovery, we’re ready to help. Book your appointment now and get back to doing what you love.