Apricus Health is excited to announce that our resident Physiotherapist Luke Butler has a new role: Community Physiotherapist! He has worked as a Physiotherapist in our hand therapy clinic in Pimilico for the past 3 years and has transitioned to the community-based role this month. Luke will be on the move, facilitating Outpatient Care, Home Visits and Aged Support to some of Townsville’s most vulnerable people.

Outpatient Care in the Home & Community

A current strain on transport services has made accessing outpatient appointments difficult for older people and those living with chronic conditions.  These services will give patients a much-needed alternative when it comes to their on-going management post-surgery or medical admissions, including the provision of equipment and aids after they have been discharged from hospital.

Aged Support

As we age our risk of falling rises considerably, particularly after the age of 65. This can be due to numerous factors to do with our strength, balance, general functional decline, neurological conditions, and our home environment. It is vital in the elderly community have access to Physiotherapy assessments and treatment to decrease these risk factors and help them stay in their homes for longer. Luke will be instrumental in giving the aged community greater access to these supports both though one-on-one therapy and group falls prevention programmes.

In addition to Luke’s experience treating upper limb conditions and injuries at our Hand Therapy Clinic, Luke also has extensive experience in outpatient rehabilitation in the hospital system. It was here that he specialised in acute rehabilitation, completing functional reconditioning, which enabled patients to discharge from hospital following orthopaedic, abdominal & cardiac surgeries. He also has experience facilitating outpatient rehabilitation programs, predominantly total knee and total hip surgery, general functional decline, neurological conditions and cardiac rehab.

Luke will use these skills and experience to develop an 8 week falls prevention programme focusing on strength and balance group classes for seniors.

‘Our falls prevention programme aims to help people that are at risk of falls, have a history of falls, people who have had a change in their function or want to maintain their function and build upper or lower limb strength. Ideally, we will see an improvement in all those measures by the end of the 8 weeks.'

We will be announcing dates shortly.  Watch this space.

Luke has limited therapy bookings available now.  Email hello@apricushealth.com.au to enquire.