The Corner of Pain- May 2020
I do not know where to start with this month’s Corner of Pain, these last 2 -3 months have been the biggest of all roller coasters. So soon after the excitement of reopening after major renovations of our fantastic “new” facilities, came the impending doom of COVID-19. Then it hit and we had to try and find a balance between the health and safety of our community and continuing to service our clients, treat injuries, or ensure we do not spread a virus? We made the tough decision to close the practice for all in-clinic consultations on April 1st. Not a great ‘business decision’ however it was the right decision for the community and to do our part to minimise risk of transmission. Thankfully since that day, the transmission numbers have plummeted! We are not out of the woods yet, but there are not many places in the world I would rather be right now!
As physios, we always believed that with our knowledge to share, that Telehealth consultations could be a very beneficial service. We were thrilled that when telehealth became a necessity, that many of our clients got to experience ‘Virtual Physio’ and seen the benefits. We also delivered 5 variations of Livestream exercise classes with attendees all the way from Canada, New Jersey and East Gippsland as well as our locals! While our world was in isolation, our reach expanded! We introduced POSTURE, a class targeted at WFH’ers (Work From Home-ers), a short exercise class targeting primarily the upper body- initially 5 times per week for our clients. We have even been running these daily for a large local employer. And for you, every Wednesday POSTURE is FREE at Midday- you should join in!! We are pleased to say that Telehealth consultations will continue beyond COVID-19, so Virtual and Livestream services all look like being an ongoing part of the Reload future.
We are so pleased that over the last 2 weeks we have been transitioning back to running nearly all our in-clinic services. We are back close to full hours, our in- clinic exercise classes are back up and running and we are very relieved that we have managed to retain our full team through this period. However, we are not ‘just’ back working as usual, there are differences, significant differences. We have always believed we kept a high level of cleanliness within our practice but we have now dialed up our cleaning by a factor of about 20! We have higher expectations of our team, but also a higher expectation of our clients, we are asking everyone a series of COVID questions before EVERY attendance at our practice, we expect all class participants to clean the equipment after class attendance, washing/ sanitising hands is also expected upon arrival. This is the new world. We are all in this together.
Is this the new normal? Or will we return to what life previously was? Who knows? What we do know is that we are determined to keep servicing the community of the Brunswick, and surrounding suburbs to be their physical best. After a few weeks of despair not so long ago, we are hopeful that the future is looking more positive by the day..
In this May Newsletter Physio Carla has shared a great Sourdough recipe for those with the time on their hands, and Physio Anneka has shared some home exercises to keep looking after yourself while working from home (somewhat similar to some POSTURE class exercises).
We look forward to seeing our community again, and we hope everyone has been looking after themselves and each other.
Mel and I would like to say a huge Happy 13th Birthday to our gorgeous daughter CLEO! (22nd May)
Marcus and Cleo 2007
Cleo 2020
Marcus.