Each afternoon at my neuro prac, we take a small group of patients to the gym for a high level balance class. This involves a gym circuit with light weights, cardio and balance exercises. One of the patients attending suffered an anoxic brain injury but doesn't have any major deficits apart from some very mild (L) sided weakness and decreased high level balance. He doesn't attend regular physio apart from the high level balance class. I always have difficulty trying to encourage this patient to participate in classes as his motivation levels are very low, and when I ask him if he's had a busy day with appointments and is tired, his reply is always "I haven't done anything, I've been so slack".
This makes treatment hard because he does have the right to refuse it, but when this occurs everyday it is frustrating because it looks like I'm letting him get out of exercise. Most of the time we eventually come to some sort of compromise like going for a walk just so we can get him out of bed but when we are trying to give patients optimal treatment to allow them to go home and function closer to their previous level, simply walking is not really doing our job properly. Does anyone have any suggestions for motivating these type of patients?
1 comment:
Its hard to motivate some people,in the end you can only give them the advice and education as to why its important that they participate in the class rather than just going for a walk and if they still choose not to comply there is nothing much else you can do
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