Welcome to Mental Health Physiotherapy
A website dedicated to the skills and knowledge required to be a mental health physiotherapist.
The intention of this website is to share the knowledge I built over 20 years working as a mental health physiotherapist and fill in a gap I see in the available guidance for physios. There is now a wealth of information on the benefits of exercise in mental health and exercise delivery has always been a core part of mental health physio. There is an increasing body of knowledge of treatment approaches for the types of physical problems people with mental health problems develop. The gap this website tries to fill are the skills of delivery. It attempts to create an overarching model to assist with the delivery of whatever intervention the physio is attempting to use. Some physios are naturally good at working with mental health patients, some not. This website explores different ideas of why this is the case and provides ideas of how we can improve our effectiveness.
Mental Health Physiotherapy
Mental Health Physio (not MH physio patients) can be divided into 3 simple categories.
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The use of physiotherapy to directly treat the mental health condition e.g. the use of exercise to improve depression
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Patients who need access to routine physiotherapy for routine health conditions but the nature of their mental health condition means that they are unable to access it so we must use the skills of engagement and adaptation
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Using physiotherapy to treat the conditions generated as a consequence of having a mental health problem. E.g. depersonalisation, myofascial pain, movement disorders.
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Category 2 and 3 is what this website explores