Is Early Intervention Effective in the Rehabilitation Process?
Rehabilitation is the process of restoring someone to health or normal life through training and therapy after illness, trauma or injury, more often than not supervised by a health professional. There are of course many reasons why someone might need to undertake a rehabilitation program, and also many people often ask ‘does early intervention work?’ Let’s explore a little further..
What Are Some of the Reasons Why Rehabilitation is Required?
A program of rehabilitation required will be decided by a health professional after analysing their client’s condition, and based on their many years of experience in their health field. Some of the most common reasons why people might need rehab are as follows:
- Chronic Pain
- Injuries - workplace, sport etc
- Acquired disability
- Geriatrics
- MSK
- Stroke
- Developmental disability - particularly in paediatrics
There are many more reasons of course why rehabilitation can be prescribed, too many to list here, but what can be looked at across all these scenarios is the question - Does early intervention work? - when it comes to starting the program of rehabilitation?
There is growing evidence that indeed it does. Whether it’s workplace early intervention or National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) early intervention, the evidence suggests that the outcomes for the individual are much improved, and indeed the speed of rehabilitation also, if the intervention in terms of rehabilitation treatment is early.
What Does Early Intervention Involve?
Rehabilitation services are available at all stages of a diagnosed condition, injury or disability. Supervision, adequate exercise and mental health support all contribute to the improvement in well being for the patient. For people with diagnosed diseases or injuries, acting fast is crucial to making the program more effective. The program can be extended to fit your needs, but beginning early helps speed up the healing process.
Let’s take workplace early intervention as an example for an injured worker. In this context an early intervention means all the stakeholder parties coming together to help coordinate the rehabilitation plan for the injured worker. This will obviously include the injured worker but also their Manager/s, perhaps HR team in the company also, and of course the all important clinical team - Doctor, maybe even a Surgeon, and then perhaps a Physio / Exercise Physiologist or Occupational Therapist. It stands to reason of course that the faster this is all put together, the better the outcomes for the individual.
Now consider early intervention for autism - a developmental disability. Here it refers to providing the specialised support needed for young children to help them with their development and learning the skills they need to be able to live their lives to the full. The earlier it can be done, i.e as soon after any sign of developmental delay is noticed, the better. While the process of establishing the best therapy program for any individual child will be very challenging, the important thing is to start the process as soon as possible.
How Can You Access Therapy Early?
The therapy program for your diagnosed condition should be available as soon as the diagnosis is obtained. You can of course lead the way by asking your doctor and being proactive in seeking the best path forward for your recovery. You can stress that you want to start the rehabilitation as soon as your healthcare professional thinks you are ready to do so.
With injuries and other acquired disabilities, rehabilitation can often start as soon as you’re discharged from the hospital - perhaps even before. Many patients are tempted to spend time at home and take therapy at a later stage, but early interventions help speed up the healing process and keep your injury under supervision.
Don’t forget you can drive the agenda by asking your doctor what is available and when you can start.
How Do Early-Intervened Cases Compare To Regular Cases?
Regular cases range from people starting rehabilitation when they notice side effects of injuries to people starting physical therapy a long time after having been diagnosed with an injury or condition.
Early-intervened rehabilitation programs, whether workplace early intervention or NDIS early intervention, have shown much better results and healthier outcomes. A shorter recovery period is also observed, which proves the effectiveness of early and timely intervention.
Healthcare professional supervision at the start of the recovery period is also incredibly beneficial. There is no doubt that early interventions are helpful for most people and are recommended if you are capable and / or eligible.
Lusio Rehab: Helping Improve Health Outcomes Through Technology
Rehabilitation is incredibly effective and early intervention helps speed up the recovery or development process when it can be achieved.
Lusio Rehab offers LusioMATE, an excellent tool that can help motivate people to complete their rehabilitation programs, if recovering from an injury, or also form an integral part of any therapy program developed to help in early intervention for autism, or any other developmental disability. It helps motivate individuals to complete their physical therapy programs, achieve their movement goals and result in better health outcomes.
For more details, contact us today.
