This gentleman was determined to make a change in his health and mobility in this new year. We were lucky enough to help him achieve that.

Often when considering topics to Blog about we neglect the mundane and less glamorous aspects of our professional lives, conversely this is often where we can have the greatest impact on our patients quality of life.

This story gets replayed so frequently and is ignorant of wealth, social status, colour or creed. The trigger can be the loses of a partner, getting laid off, suffering a long term illness, mental health issues, the list goes on. The result is a period of self-neglect and the inability to perform simple acts of maintenance and suddenly the nails and callouses are beyond self care and a source of embarasment and evental discomfort preventing mobility and furthering social isolation.

The reversal of this scenario may begin with you!

You may be their granddaughter or brother, aunt or nephew. Anyone can fall victim to circumstance and will benefit from having someone non-judgmentally advocating for them. Often people ask us, “Isn’t it terrible treating patients who neglect themselves ?”. Truthfully it can be very satisfying to witness the relief they get and the comfort they feel from what is a very basic skills intervention by our clinic.

What is most important is making sure that the patient is now able to resume ongoing maintenance themselves or have regular scheduled care initiated to prevent relapse to their former state. Clearly this care and subsequent decision making can only occur where the provision of care takes place in a relaxed safe environment. To this end we try exceptionally hard from the initial phone contact, to walking into the office, to meeting the staff that will provide the care, to make these individuals as comfortable and welcome as possible. We continually strive to improve what we do and how we do it, and will always make the odd error, such is the nature of being human!