Hiking, mountains, sun and fresh air. These are all important and motivational aspects for movement and good health in Norway. Combined they make one great rehabilitation centre. One may use them as means of training, and getting in better shape, as well as means of escaping everyday life and the stress it may cause. No matter who you are, old or young, rich or pore, this rehab centre is always open for you.
With this in mind, why not incorporate the use of nature in our everyday physiotherapy practise more actively? I know that this is far from a new idea, and that many physiotherapists uses nature and local surroundings, such as parks, much in their practice, but a little reminder can’t hurt! Trough my studies I have come to the understanding that physiotherapy involves getting the patients to take control over their own lives and illnesses trough working against goals, big and small, and making them see the value of a healthy body and mind, as well as the joy of using the body, thus working against inactivity and the dangers that comes with it. The big question is; why not have the consultations in other places than in the clinic, where the patients may feel more at ease, and where they might get a better picture of how to activate them selves after the rehabilitation period, then they might get in the clinic?
The picture shows a chairn or a “varde” as it’s called in Norwegian. The “varde” is both a marking for a mountain top, as well as a hiking goal, where one can place a new stone to the “varde” by arrival. By doing this you can get an evidence of your efforts in climbing to the top. Who knows how many people have climbed to the mountain top on the picture, placed a rock on the “varde”, and felt mastery and accomplishment over their own struggle? I think this is a good depiction of modern physiotherapy seen from a patient’s point of view. The road to the top is the rehabilitation process, where the goal is to place the rock at the “varde”, and gain mastery over their own struggle and effort, and say “I made it!”.
References:
https://helsedirektoratet.no/Lists/Publikasjoner/Attachments/463/Aktivitetshandboken-IS-1592.pdf https://nhi.no/psykisk-helse/psykisk-egenpleie/20-minutters-pause-i-naturen-er-god-medisin-mot-stress/
One thought on “Klareng, Øystein. Take a hike!”
By reading this i could already imagine the type of development you are talking about and yes it is so true that health care professionals should look at the broader aspects of helping our patients not only physically but mentally and emotionally as well. I think this is well thought through and well put, the photo you upload works hand in glove with your perspective about it and it had me thinking differently about the ways of dealing with our patients. To get this idea heard and developed i think you should consider putting down ways that this idea could reach the health system e.g creating campaigns about hiking or awareness about benefits of physically challenging your body and mind. And lastly please on paragraph 1 on the last sentence there is a bit of spelling error and on the second paragraph as well on the 3rd and 4th sentence. This was so good to read , well done!