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October 29, 2014

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Five things about early rehabilitation that you may not know

early-rehabilitation

Capturing injury or illness early and treating it appropriately results in better outcomes for injured parties and prevents the development of chronic conditions. It requires considerable skill, however, to manage early rehabilitation, working with injured people at the early stage to ensure that their condition is appropriately assessed and the right treatment commenced. Here are a few things that may not be so obvious about early rehabilitation:

  • Triage and the importance of it

Triage is the method used by medics to immediately assess the level of a person’s injury. The term comes from the French verb trier, meaning to separate, sift or select – interestingly, history states triage was used as far back as the Napoleonic War to sort injured soldiers to determine medical priority in order to increase the numbers of survivors.

It’s fair to say that as medical technology has advanced, so have modern approaches to triage, which are increasingly based on scientific models. NHS Direct is one form of triage, with the use of telephone assessments becoming more and more prevalent. Irrespective of the method used however, the objective of triage is for medical professionals to get to grips with what they are dealing with quickly so that they can act fast and appropriately.

  •  Early intervention has to be managed carefully

Get early intervention wrong and it can actually damage and prolong a recovery period. It is essential that early rehabilitation phases go well to avoid complications further down the line. For many injuries – Rest, Ice, Compression and Elevation (RICE)- in order to reduce pain and inflammation, should be the area of immediate focus post injury.

  • Web based treatment programmes

Web-based treatment programmes are on the up – for both physical injuries and also in particular for mental health conditions, such as depression and anxiety. All the programmes are overseen by a physiotherapist, counsellor or psychologist, for example, and some face to face time over the phone or web can be available. NHS waiting lists for mental health conditions can be lengthy and studies are showing that web based therapies are achieving some real, tangible results along with high patient satisfaction scores.

  • Whiplash

The hot topic! The use of a neck brace or collar is long gone – keeping the neck mobile and doing gentle exercises is key to improving its movement and speed of recovery, ensuring early rehabilitation. Pain on movement is normal and symptoms generally resolve as whiplash, after all, is a soft tissue injury. If symptoms extend beyond six months, the condition then becomes chronic.

  • The cost of early rehabilitation

Or rather the cost of not providing it, is a key question. Many employers struggle with knowing the true cost of absence, no matter what the cause. If businesses could begin to quantify a more precise cost, then insurers, rehabilitation providers and the wider medical community could begin to understand the real impact early rehabilitation and intervention is having on bottom line costs and recovery rates.

Employee absence cost the UK economy £14 billion in 2012, according to a CBI report published last year. Reducing the amount of down time employees have due to illness or injury would undoubtedly reduce this figure and early rehabilitation intervention is integral to this.

 

Rosie Hewitt is rehabilitation manager for QBE European Operations

What makes us susceptible to burnout?

In this episode  of the Safety & Health Podcast, ‘Burnout, stress and being human’, Heather Beach is joined by Stacy Thomson to discuss burnout, perfectionism and how to deal with burnout as an individual, as management and as an organisation.

We provide an insight on how to tackle burnout and why mental health is such a taboo subject, particularly in the workplace.

stress

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