We are delighted to announce our latest FREE webinar, ‘Amputee cases: Legal & Clinical best practices in a Covid world‘, in association with Gerard Martin & Exchange Chambers
For a taste of what the event will cover on 7th October, please watch this short video
Event & registration details can be found here
Experts in amputation team up to deliver online event
Experts are teaming up to raise awareness about the key issues impacting the clinical outcomes for people who undergo an elective traumatic amputation.
Pace Rehabilitation, STEPS Rehabilitation and Stewarts are jointly hosting the event on 11 August which explores the medical and legal journey for people who sustain limb loss.
Speakers include Zeeshan Sheikh, consultant plastic surgeon at Central Manchester University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, who specialises in complex amputations.
Toby Carlsson, director of Pace Rehabilitation, said: “This event is aimed at case managers, insurers and anyone working in the fields of amputation and rehabilitation. By sharing knowledge like this everyone who has an interest in improving patient outcomes can become better equipped with awareness of the key issues involving orthotics, prosthetic technologies and long-term physical and psychological rehabilitation.”
Chris Smith, senior associate at law firm Stewarts, said: “Having a clear rehabilitation pathway in place at the outset of a case following a life-changing incident is an important part of getting the best outcome. This seminar will demonstrate the vital role of the law in getting clients’ lives back on track following an amputation. It will also highlight the key considerations for clients, insurers and rehabilitation providers and the importance of collaboration in the process.”
Scott Pearson of STEPS Rehabilitation, said: “We’ll also be sharing a client case study of best practice which brings to life the issues we’re discussing. The evidence shows that taking a multidisciplinary approach with patients leads to an optimal rehabilitation experience and therefore better outcomes.”
To register for the event click here.
Rehabilitation in the COVID Era
At midday on Monday 18th May we are hosting a FREE 1-hour webinar.
The event will provide registered attendees with the opportunity to learn about our rehabilitation services & how we continue to support patients in the current climate, with a particular focus on mental well-being.
This introduction will outline the regular services provided by our multidisciplinary team (MDT), with an update on recent service developments.
It will also cover how we have adapted to the COVID-19 era, with the current focus on psychological support.
Presenters will be prosthetist Toby Carlsson & clinical psychologist Karen Mead, with other clinicians on the virtual panel (Q&A’s will be available during the webinar, via the Zoom software).
Places are limited for this Zoom event. To register, please follow this LINK.
In these unusual times it is more important than ever to dedicate a little time each day to your own well-being.
With this in mind the physiotherapy team at Pace Rehabilitation have searched through the available resources to find the best tools to help you focus your sessions.
We have sourced a range of options to suit all abilities, so if this one isn’t right for you our next post might be better suited.
Wellbeing Tip #8 – Power up with LimbPower
LimbPower was launched in 2009 to engage amputees and people with limb impairment in physical activity, sport and arts, to improve quality of life and support lifelong rehabilitation.
They are working hard to increase their online platforms to support you during this period of social isolation. #LimbPowerShare #StayInWorkOut
For exercise ideas check out their toolkit.
They have partnered with Sport England to produce a series of exercise videos:
Each video demonstrates the inclusive targeted exercises, with a voice-over and on-screen graphics to really help you to get the best from the toolkit, building your confidence and fitness levels.
There are lots of ways to get connected to Limb Power:
Facebook Groups:
Or via their website: https://limbpower.com/
Wellbeing Tip #7 – Keep skilled, keep in control
Have you become lazy with your key exercises? Are there any prosthetic skills you could be practicing? As with everything, competent prosthetic use depends on regular practice. If you play the piano you need to practice scales. If you play golf, you need to go to the driving range. Although you may be functioning well, you will inevitably be slipping into bad habits if you don’t have a routine of regular skills practice.
Here are a few key suggestions for you. If any of them are a little rusty try to spend a few minutes each day until they are mastered again.
If you have any of the following prosthetic devices (and an apple phone/device) you may also be able to download the Ossur app to test and train your skills:
Wellbeing Tip #6 – What shall I eat?
Today’s focus will be around nutrition, which is essential in providing the energy you need to support your lifestyle, the building blocks for tissue healing and repair, and for maintaining a healthy body weight. This is vital for prosthetic limb wearers.
A great resource is Specialist Nutrition Rehab (@SpecialistRD). Sheri is a registered dietitian who provides regular blog articles targeting different topics related to brain, spinal cord and orthopaedic injuries and general tips that we would all benefit from.
She has recently created two blogs specifically related to coronavirus. These are great resources for the current climate that are useful to both referrers and clients.
Have a look here: https://specialistnutritionrehab.co.uk/blog/
Wellbeing Tip #5 – One-to-one personal exercise programmes
The Wellbeing tips so far have focused on general education and exercise ideas that will suit most amputees.
However, personalised one-to-one input generally achieves better results and longer-term lifestyle changes. Our therapy team regularly collaborates with other exercise instructors to provide tailored programmes that suit our patient’s individual personality and preference, to reach our combined rehabilitation goals.
One of the great reactions to this pandemic is that many businesses have adapted to be able to provide online support to keep you motivated and engaged during social isolation. Personal trainers, Pilates, yoga instructors and health professionals are all continuing to offer one to one services.
Why not give us a call on 0161 428 5500 (Bredbury) or 01494 790 490 (Amersham) to speak with one of our physiotherapists who can chat to you about your goals and provide a physiotherapy ‘virtual’ treatment plan, or link you up with other services suited to you.
Well-being Tip #4 – Try a new exercise (5th May 2020)
Being an amputee or having a limb deficiency does not mean that you cannot engage in mainstream exercise activities. Having some spare time at home provides the perfect opportunity to test your limits and try out new activities, or those you haven’t tried in a while!
There are lots of options to exercise from home, here are a few examples:
Remember: Yes, you will have to adapt some movements. Yes you might not be able to keep up, but no-one ever can!! This is all about just keeping moving and enjoying exercise, you are in your own home, so adapt it however you like. Or, if you need ideas, contact our physiotherapy team at Pace. There is a way to do everything!
Well-being Tip #3 – Walking Couch to 5k (1st May 2020)
Walking is a great exercise. It is an effective way to keep physically fit, maintain strength and bone health, and is achievable for most.
This programme was developed by Kent Sport which is an integrated team of Kent County Council and Sport England funded staff.
The nice thing about it is the simplicity – to start off all you need to commit to is 10 minutes walk every day.
You can use a stick(s) if you want and wear supportive shoes.
At week 7, you could walk 1.5 miles if the jump to 2 miles is too much. You can also repeat a week if you are not ready to progress.
Keeping a diary will keep you on track and help you look back at your progress.
Give it a go… we would love to hear about your progress on Twitter & Facebook. Good luck!
Please remember to adhere to government guidelines during the lockdown period.
Well-being Tip #2 – Protect your emotional energy (29th April 2020)
With so many changes to our daily lives in such a short time, it is understandable that we may be feeling a little stressed. This often comes out in our behaviour, whether we notice we are struggling to sleep, have changes in our appetite or energy levels, feel a bit more sensitive and tearful, or perhaps are noticing we are a little less tolerant than usual.
These are all really normal responses to what is an “extra-ordinary” event, and part of our brains alarm system letting us know there is something not quite right…
Unfortunately, our body’s alarm – the stress response system is only designed to be switched on for short “bursts” of activity. When we are caught in situations that we cannot escape, or fix, our brains alarm system will just keep ringing and can start to get a bit run down – a little bit like a car alarm that keeps going and going…
Eventually the car battery will start to drain! That’s when we can start to fall in a heap and feel really exhausted and flat.
The following video talks about ways to help “calm the alarm” centre in our brains and shift our focus onto the things we can do to re-gain a sense of control at the moment.
This is really important to do if you are in long drawn out stress situations, to prevent becoming burnout. It’s only 5 minutes long, so go on, click HERE.
Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay
Well-being Tip #1 – Amputee Fitness App (21st April 2020)
First up is the Ottobock Fitness App
This is a free downloadable exercise app which includes:
Although our minds might be busier than ever, with the loss of daily routine and the stress associated with COVID19. The likelihood is that you have a little more time to dedicate to exercise. It might not feel like a priority, but daily exercise will make you feel better both physically and mentally.
Please get in touch with the physiotherapists if you need some help with exercise ideas – info@pacerehab.com
Operational Status (updated 8th June 2020)
Having maintained an essential service for our patients over the last 10 weeks, Pace Rehabilitation has taken careful steps to ensure patients, visitors and staff will be COVID secure going forwards.
Upon completing a risk assessment of our clinics and by carefully adhering to social distancing, infection control, hand washing, the use of PPE and supporting home working in line with government guidelines, we are providing responsible rehabilitation by managing the risks.
Our referrers can feel confident to refer their clients. Together, we will support their rehabilitation journey.
Our measures will be continually reviewed.
Welcome to responsible rehabilitation.
Please follow this link to view our COVID secure 5 Step guide.
Pace founder, MD & prosthetist, Toby Carlsson, announces we are proud to display the ‘COVID secure’ poster & welcome most existing patients & new referrals to our clinics.
This short video outlines the services we are currently providing during the current lockdown restrictions to support our patients and referrers.
Our webinar (18th May 2020) – outlining how we are continuing to support our patients AND the psychological aspects they can face during lockdown.
Reviewed on 16/4/2020 (unchanged since 26/3/20)
Dear Stakeholder,
We are all acutely aware of the restrictions the COVID-19 pandemic places on society and the importance of considering carefully how we conduct ourselves in this environment.
As a healthcare service provider, we at Pace Rehabilitation take our patient care; staff well-being; and social responsibility very seriously. We continue to monitor and follow the guidance from Public Health England (PHE).
Importantly, both our sites remain operational but with limited capacity. Based on PHE guidance, we have developed and implemented protocols for social distancing, infection control and pre-appointment screening of patients. Clinical, technical and administration resources remain in place to support patients deemed to have a medical need to attend and that pass our pre-attendance screening process. Remote consultations and assessments are used where appropriate to maintain patient support.
Our regular activities are of course extensively disrupted but we remain as keen as ever to work with our stakeholders in the best way possible. To that end, we encourage patients, case managers, solicitors, insurers and anyone else who works with us to keep in touch by phone and e-mail in order to maintain some momentum and plan a return to normal activities as soon as possible.
For further information regarding Pace’s current operational status and the protective measures that are in place, please do not hesitate to get in touch with me via our regular switchboard numbers or e-mail my colleague Scott Richardson on srichardson@pacerehab.com.
With our very best wishes,
Toby Carlsson
Managing Director
We would like to offer referrers of our rehabilitation services a convenient update on the latest developments regarding the prosthetic/orthotic industry & associated therapy services, at your place of work.
Our unrivaled Multi-Disciplinary Team is pleased to provide this training opportunity to you & your colleagues
From prosthetic finger digits (Naked Prosthetics), to intensive rehabilitation packages (Your360) & updates about Osseointegration, our specialist clinicians will deliver a comprehensive presentation to re-fresh, educate & inform.
We will be happy to tailor information to include specific areas of interest, as required.
Please contact Scott Richardson to arrange a mutually convenient date.
Phantom limb pain is a debilitating condition that commonly affects individuals after amputation.
At Pace we are excited to announce we are now offering Neuromotus treatment.
What is Neuromotus?
Neuromotus is a treatment technique used to reduce the symptoms of phantom limb pain. Phantom limb pain (PLP) is a debilitating condition that affects 50-80% of amputees [1,2]. Its presentation is unique to the individual with varying intensity, pain description, duration and frequency but it often negatively impacts on a person’s quality of life [2,3].
There are many treatment options for phantom limb pain, for example; pharmaceutical (pain medication), mirror therapy, acupuncture, invasive surgery and psychological approaches such as hypnotherapy [1]. Most of these have been proven to reduce pain however, from clinical experience, no one treatment seems to suit all.
Neuromotus is a new non-invasive treatment option which instead of relying on visual imagery to create an illusion of the absent portion of limb, (as with mirror therapy) it uses a concept called phantom motor execution [3]. Phantom motor execution is the process of moving the phantom limb by activating the appropriate motor area of the brain through muscular activation in the residuum [3].
Who is it for?
Neuromotus is appropriate for any level of amputation, upper or lower limb, providing you have the ability to contract muscle in the residuum.
How does Neuromotus work?
Small electrodes placed on the skin over specific muscle groups in your leg or arm detect muscle signals controlled by the motor area of your brain and allow you to take control of a virtual limb on the computer screen and start to re-train the movements. It is believed that re-establishing this link between the brain and the movement of your phantom limb can have a positive effect on reducing the intensity of your PLP.
The first clinical trial showed a 47% reduction in overall PLP, 43% reduction in intrusion of PLP on day to day activities and 61% reduction of sleep disturbance after 12 treatment sessions [4]. These results were based on upper limb amputees but there is an ongoing research project replicating this study with the inclusion of lower limb participants.
Pace Rehabilitation Neuromotus Treatment Packages
We can offer three treatment packages, following an initial assessment and will guide you as to which suits you best.
It takes time for the treatment to influence the phantom limb pain therefore you need to ensure you can commit to a minimum of once weekly treatment prior to starting.
How to find out more
To find out if you are suitable or to book in for a telephone triage please contact us on either 0161 428 5500 (Bredbury) 01494 790 490 (Amersham) or alternatively via email at: info@pacerehab.com
A PDF version of this information can be viewed HERE.
Further information can be found at: https://integrum.se/phantom-pain/
References
As 2019 comes to a close, please take the opportunity to sit back with a hot drink and a mince pie and read our latest edition of eNews.
It has been another successful and full-on year at Pace, including relocating our Chesham clinic to nearby Amersham, to premises three times the size.
Pace continues to deliver unrivaled independent prosthetic, orthotic and associated therapy services to the UK.
We look forward to working with you in 2020.
Pace Rehabilitation
Earlier this year Pace Rehabilitation introduced American based Naked Prosthetics (NP) functional finger prostheses to the UK, at their series of Partial Hand & Digit Symposiums.
Pace is delighted to announce that following subsequent clinical assessments of potential adopters of this exciting technology, they have just provided the first NP device to a UK patient.
Twenty-two-year-old Sam sustained traumatic amputations of parts of his left fourth and fifth fingers and was referred to Pace for clinical assessment by his solicitors at Sintons Law.
Initial prosthetic consideration was given to cosmetic devices. However, with the recent availability of NP devices, a functional solution could also be explored.
As Pace prosthetist Toby Carlsson describes, “Sam was identified as suitable candidate for an MCP Driver for his fourth finger, which is amputated through the proximal interphalangeal joint.” He continued, “His fifth finger is amputated further distally, through the middle phalanx. This results in a longer finger remnant.”
Liaison between Pace’s multi-disciplinary team and NP’s Clinical Director Aislinn Wyatt, in Washington (USA), concluded that the fifth digit might be too long to also accommodate a MCP Driver.
As Toby concluded, “It was decided to start by fitting the fourth finger and possibly return to the other at a later date, once the functional benefit from the initial device have been assessed.”
Following a cast and measures of Sam’s hand, the order was placed for the bespoke device. Eight weeks later it was winging its way across the Atlantic.
An excited Sam attended Pace’s Bredbury clinic, following a few fine-tuning adjustments to optimise fit and function, he was quickly performing dexterous movement and activities, such as stacking cups and grasping different objects.
David Knipe, an Associate at Sintons Law acting on Sam’s behalf explained, “When suffering a life-changing amputation it is imperative that individuals have access to the most effective prosthetic aids available, to allow them to regain as much independence as possible.” Adding, “Sintons have been delighted to collaborate with both Pace Rehabilitation and Naked Prosthetics (USA) in order to make this cutting-edge technology available for our client.”
Sam will return in a few weeks’ time to further evaluate the benefits of the device.
For more information about NP devices and Pace’s clinical services, click HERE.
