The NDIS has been implemented to help provide people with the services and assistance they need to lead a full and happy life. Here at Be Podiatry, we play an active role for many individuals who are currently a part of the NDIS. Due to our scope of practice, there are a number of different areas in which our team can help you.
Our initial consultation is built around getting to know the patient and better understand their goals and expectations. Ensuring that we have a well rounded understanding of a patient’s daily life, their support team and other practitioners involved in their care is essential. This enables us to accurately determine how podiatry intervention can help improve the patients lifestyle and how we can best work alongside other health professionals involved in care to achieve positive outcomes.
Once we have a better understanding of the patient’s background, we run through a full vascular, neurological, musculoskeletal and gait assessment. From here we will put together a short, mid and long term plan that we can begin to implement. How we can assist a patient and what their plan looks like is completely dependent on these goals and needs.
Some of the types of care that we can implement are as follows;
- General skin and nail care: Managing our nails is often a difficult task, particularly if they’re thick, varied in shape, fungal or have a history of ingrown nails. Alternatively, skin issues such as callous, corns, warts, psoriasis, blisters, dermatitis and tinea are all managed in the clinic via a number of different methods.
- High risk foot care: Patients with diabetes, peripheral neuropathy (lack of protective sensation), arterial disease or nerve damage. As a result of these systemic issues, the foot and lower limb is more susceptible to ulcers/wounds, infections, fractures and falls. This is where we see the intersection of general foot care and the biomechanical aspects of podiatry.
- Biomechanics and load management of the foot and lower limb are essential factors in managing our foot health. As noted with high risk feet, repetitive stress and strain in the foot can lead to tissue breakdown, overuse injuries and on a long enough timeline degenerative change. On the flip side, other issues we may often see are increased falls and trip risk, balance or neurological changes, chronic joint degeneration, muscle weakness, fatigue with extended periods of activity and limb length differences to highlight a few commonly seen issues. Management of these issues can be undertaken in a number of different ways including orthoses, footwear modifications, splints and bracing, strength and conditioning, shockwave therapy, K-laser, dry needling and mobilisation.
For more info and depth on NDIS at Be Podiatry Click Here
No matter what the type of issue and treatment, we ensure that our management/treatment plan correlates back to the patient’s goals. Get in touch with our team today to see how we can help! 9434 4422 or info@bepodiatry.com.au
