Helping Our Patients Take One Step Forward

Jennafer Vande Vegte, PT, BCB-PMD, PRPC is a H&W faculty member and one of the developers of the advanced Pelvic Floor Capstone course. In this guest post, she reflects on her own clinical and personal experience that informed her work on this advanced course, and her approach with patients.

Most days I feel like I am on a journey. Some days I make big strides forward, other days I might fall back. But I am always learning, and eventually I hope to grow. I think it is much the same for our patients. And also for ourselves.

My youngest daughter was diagnosed with eczema, allergies (food and others) and asthma at an early age. In my hubris I felt if I could learn all I could about what was going on in her body I could "fix" her. So began a journey that took me outside the realm of traditional medicine into holistic care. I learned so much! My daughter got a lot healthier. The rest of my family got a lot healthier. I got healthier too. And I began to recognize patients in my practice that needed more holistic care. Guess what, they got healthier too.

When she was in first grade she was diagnosed with ADHD. I retraced the steps of my previous journey that had helped her so much with her allergies, eczema and asthma. But ADHD proved to be resistant to diet , supplements, and homeopathy. We visited an OT and got some good suggestions. A family therapist helped us a ton as parents, but I'm not sure how much he helped my daughter. We tried Ritalin to no avail. Energy therapy and essential oils followed before I finally made an appointment with a ADHD child specialist MD. We will see where that step leads. Why

Why am I telling you all this you may ask? Because I realized that my journey with my daughter is very much like our journey walking next to our patients with chronic pain. They/we may try so many things trying to find the "fix" to make their pain go away. As we grow on our own life journeys and experiences and we add quality clinical tools to our toolboxes we very well may be able to help more people experience freedom from pain, improvements in function, and meeting their goals. But there will be always still be those that we feel like we didn't help. Don't despair dear friends. Every person we have come in contact with in the quest to better equip and understand my daughter's mental and physical health has been a wealth of information, inspiration, and resources. Some things I learned some years ago (essential oils for example) and only now am putting into practice. I wasn't ready before but I am now! I realized that there is a similar dynamic for our patients. We may help them take just one step forward. We may walk a whole journey to healing beside them, or we may never know what the impact of our treatment had on them. But in the end we both end up exactly where we needed to be.

Insignia Health developed the PAM (Patient Activation Measure) Survey (http://www.insigniahealth.com/products/pam-survey) to help heath care providers determine where along the pathway of activation of self care a patient falls. What is interesting about the tool is that a single point increase correlates to a 2% decrease in hospitalization and a 2% increase in medication adherence. The science behind the PAM shows that helping our patients to move forward just one step can have a profound influence on their health. The trick is meeting them where they are at.

Pelvic Floor Capstone was a joy to develop with Nari Clemons and Allison Arial. Our goal was to equip you to take one more step in your learning journey in pelvic health. We delve into intense topics like endocrine disorders, pelvic surgery, gynecological cancer, nutrition and pharmacology. Labs are focused on evaluating and treating myofascial restrictions utilizing a gentle, indirect three dimensional system that invites the brain to reconnect with connective tissue in a safe way for powerful change. We would love to see you at Capstone and hear your stories later on how our time together empowered you to help your patients take one more step.