Rehabilitation
Chitungwiza Central Hospital offers inpatients and outpatients rehabilitation services, providing quality care to help individuals return to an independent lifestyle Through physiotherapy and occupational therapy rehabilitation staff will help you again as much of you former mobility and lifestyle as possible. The rehabilitation department at Chitungwiza Central Hospital is made up of one Chief Therapist four (4) Occupational Therapists, five (5) Physiotherapists and 8 rehabilitation technicians. The trained staff is this department help each patient achieve the highest level of independence following a loss of function from illness or injury. We offer free health education to patients and families.
The 18 rehabilitation personnel are grouped into teams offering a comprehensive range of services for children and adults as in and outpatients, including:
- Rehabilitation aiming for optimal level of independence.
- Respiratory care for patients in Intensive Care Unit following surgery or with chromic respiratory diseases including emergency service at night and, weekends and public holidays.
- Use of techniques to reduce pain and improve the range of movement of joints.
- Involvement in safe, appropriate discharge planning.
Treatment programmes include the following
- Exercise therapy
- Respiratory care
- Nuerological and physical therapy
- Activities of Daily Living (ADLs) training
- Electrotherapy
Health education and advice including education for carers. Rehabilitation personnel at Chitungwiza Central Hospital also assist in preventing certain conditions e.g. back pain.. We also part of multi-disciplinary services such as cardiac rehabilitation, wheel chair and prosthetic team.
Management of rehabilitation personnel begun with a comprehensive assessment which includes among other sections, observation, subjective assessment, past medical history, social history, objective assessment and a problem analysis section.
Rehabilitation staff is part of multidisciplinary team where patient conferences are conducted prior patient discharge.
OCCUPATIONAL THERAPY
Involves the use of purposeful activities to help an individual regain maximum functional independence post injury or illness, Occupational Therapists are part of the rehabilitation team and their aims are to assist people regain, develop or build skills that are important for independent living and functioning, well being and happiness.
Occupational Therapists work with people of all ages who because of illness, injury or developmental or psychological impairment, require specialised assistance in leaning skills to enable them to lead independent productive and satisfying lives. Occupational Therapists can also assist in preventing injury or worsening condition or disabilities.
Scope and Practice of Occupational Therapists
Occupational therapists can work in a variety of settings which includes:
- hospitals
- communities
- schools
- pre-schools
- mines
- forensics / prisons
Occupational Therapists can also be consultants to industry, architects and planners in hospital occupational therapists help in the management of the following conditions:
- musculoskeletal
- orthopaedic
- huerological
- Chronic conditions
- phychiatric
- bums
Physiotherapy is a system for assessing problems of function and of musculoskeletal of nuerophysiological problems including those of pain and psychosomatic origin and of healing.
Physiotherapy service include assessment and treatment of patients using various techniques. In the out patients department, physiotherapy is done in the gym area using manual techniques, electrotherapy techniques and gym machines. In the wards patients with acute illness are also treated using various physiotherapy techniques.
Physiotherapy is concerned with human function and movement and maximising potential. It uses physical approaches to promote, maintain and restore physical. psychological and social well being taking account of variations in health status.
Psysiotherapists like occupational therapists also work in different settings among them community, sports, special institutions (e.g. old people’s homes), industry and in clinical set ups (hospitals and private clinics).
Community physiotherapy is mainly a preventive approach and is based on the principles of the rehabilitation process. These principles include education and information dissemination, early identification, appropriate management and early referral when necessary.
In sports physiotherapists are involved in both training and management of injuries resulting in training they do general muscle strengthening and cardio respiratory fitness tests among them lung function tests.
In industry physiotherapists are involved in industrial ergonomics with a special emphasis on biomechanics. They also do cardio-respiratory tests for vulnerable workers especially those in the mining industry.
Many physiotherapists work in a purely clinical setting. The majority work in public institutions (government hospitals, military hospitals and national rehabilitation centres). However some work in private hospital. The main areas of practice are cardio respiratory musculoskeletal and neurology. However practice is not limited to the above areas alone. They also work with obstetrics and gynaecological conditions and general wound management.
Did you know that physiotherapists treat some types of headaches.
Operation of the Department
Operations in outpatients department are divide into four (40 clinics which cover the five (5) working days. Weekends are catered for by staff on call. The various clinics that are done every week include the following:
- clubfoot – Monday
- Stroket neurological conditions e.g. SCI, BNS tumours – Tuesday
- Cerebral palsy and any other developmental conditions – Wednesday
- Orthopaedic – LBP, #5, PNI – Thursday
- Orthopaedic – Friday
For each clinic they are staff members allocated to cover each of the clinics and they also rotate so that every staff members gains experience in treatment of every condition. For inpatients at least four (4) staff members have been allocated to cover the needs of inpatients in each ward.