2018, is the 20th Anniversary of the Practice & Sue Pattison (Physiotherapist & Director) reflects on the journey so far!
I have always loved being a Physiotherapist and my passion from early in my career was working with people living with neurological conditions. Early in my career I spent some time working at Highbank. This developed my interest in working with acquired brain injury (ABI). As a specialist unit the frustration was the lack of resources our patients were being discharged to. In 1998, I decided to set up as a sole trader providing community based rehabilitation specifically for persons with ABI. At the time when I introduced myself people referred to me as “like gold dust”. I am grateful to say that rehabilitation has come a long way in 20 years and we are now one of many high-quality Practices providing community rehabilitation. Which means choice to patients and their referrers.
North West Acquired Brain Injury Network
As a sole trader in the early days one of the difficulties was telling people I was available. With the support of Sue Relph and Linda Jo’oste in 2006 we set up the North West Acquired Brain Injury Network. The primary role of the Network is to enable voluntary, public and private sector services to show case their skills the aim being for case managers to select the best team for their clients. The Network continues to go from strength to strength has more than 250 members. The network meets the second Friday of May and November between 12.30 and 2.30 at The Mersey Valley Sports Club. All funds raised go to our local Headway group.
Proudest Moment
At the Practice we pride ourselves on delivering the very best service and once a case manager referred to us as “The Ronseal of the Industry”. Once I had got over the initial upset of being referred to as a varnish she explained, because “ you do exactly what you say you are going to do”. Something that makes me very proud. However, my proudest moment to date was when Karen Middleton CEO of the Chartered Society of Physiotherapy visited the Practice in 2015.
I am a bit of a “people magpie” and with time I have collected a dynamic team of people who share my passion and commitment to improving the lives of persons living with neurological conditions. In 2015 we developed the role of Clinical Champion enabling our team to champion their passions. Anna Ziemer, Physiotherapist is our Balance Champion and works not only to improve balance problems but also to reduce falls in our elderly which is fast becoming the number one cause of head injury. Franki (Occupational Therapist) is our Cognitive Champion who works to increase understanding of problems of lack of insight and memory loss which present huge challenges to persons living with ABI and to their families. Liz Cowan, Children’s Physiotherapist is our Therapeutic & Inclusive Play Champion, and works to ensure all involved in a child’s world understand the importance of the child being an active part rather than an observer of play.
Over the 20 years we have had many successful collaborations with local charitable groups with team members support Bury & North Manchester MSS and Headway Rochdale & Bury. However, by far our most successful collaboration has been with Bolton Neuro Voices with whom we run our very successful hydrotherapy course. We have had 166 successful participants of all ages and abilities over the past 6 years.
We have forged successful partnerships and relationships with various local charities, organisations, case management companies and professional bodies, and we hope to continue this in the future! Thanks for making it an enjoyable 20 years!