What are your experiences of accessing NHS Physiotherapy?

Physiotherapy (physio) is tailored exercise, manual therapy or education and advice (or a combination of the three) that helps to restore your movement and function. Physio is an ongoing process involving sessions with a specially trained and regulated practitioner called a physiotherapist and a treatment plan of exercise for you to complete at home. Progress is reviewed at follow-up sessions and the exercise regime adjusted as appropriate. As you gain confidence in managing the exercises without support and acquire the ability to integrate what you’ve been shown into everyday life, sessions can become increasingly infrequent.

Access to physio services for people living with dystonia is variable and there are lots of different experiences across the dystonia community. This might depend on where you live, the type of dystonia you have or the severity of your condition. The UCL Queen Square Institute of Neurology has now launched a new piece of research to explore these variances further.

Through the research they want to understand your experiences of accessing NHS physiotherapy for your dystonia and learn about your satisfaction with current practices. They are also interested in the ways you manage your dystonic symptoms and how dystonia impacts your daily life. By gathering this information, they hope to gain valuable insights that could help improve physiotherapy services for people with dystonia and deepen their understanding of the challenges you face living with this condition. 

To capture your experiences, the UCL Queen Square Institute of Neurology has developed a survey. From the survey results, we also hope to gain better understanding of the varying access to physiotherapy and learn more about how you'd like to shape the future delivery of physiotherapy. The survey has been designed for people living with particular types of dystonia where physiotherapy is more commonly used and investigated as a treatment option.

If you are interested in taking part in this important piece of research, you can find out the full details and inclusion criteria on our survey page.

Published: 11th September 2024