Client Success Story: How doing telehealth sessions helped Ethel stay connected through lockdown

A quick look at how Exercise Physiology  Telehealth sessions are helping a variety of our clients to exercise safely at home and feel connected to their community. 

Meet Ethel*, a 92 year old woman from the suburbs of Eastern Sydney who has been socially isolated and confined to her home for the past month with the risks of the coronavirus too significant to do her usual trips to the shops, some light gardening and her biweekly catch ups with her family.

Through a personal contact who had already been a client of Longevity Exercise Physiology, Ethel agreed to give Telehealth a try. In her free strategy session, the exercise physiologist took the time to show her Zoom, PhysiApp and FaceTime. After weighing the benefits (and realizing some options are for the more tech-savvy) she opted for FaceTime and the initial appointment date was set.

In the initial appointment, the Longevity member took the time to listen to her and her story. What she had been struggling with for years, how she thought exercise physiology might help her and how her life has been impacted with the recent pandemic. Together they came up with the best plan moving forward, which was 5, 15 minute sessions per week. Ethel then began several tests to get base measures of her function with specific focus on her goals and the limitations she was hoping to work on.

For the first week, there were very few glitches in working with Telehealth, even for someone who was intimidated by the array of options at first. Apart from accidentally picking a call up on the iPad and shifting the camera views to the best spot, there were no digital hurdles to speak of.

When retesting came about, Ethel had improved her walking speed by 18.5%, leg strength (as measured by sit to stand test) by 30%, improved shoulder range of motion by 15 degrees and dramatically improved her balance — all with the lack of any significant exercise equipment. The most notable change was in her behaviour as she went from apprehensive about exercising to picking up the FaceTime call with a smile, excited to see what was programmed for her on that day.

If you, or any of your family members, could benefit from our services like Ethel contact Longevity and book in your strategy session to see how telehealth could work for you!  1300 964 002

*Name Changed for Privacy Reasons