St Mary’s Establishes New Physio Community Service with Local Care Homes

St Mary’s University, Twickenham has collaborated with three local residential care facilities in Teddington to provide a community rehabilitation placement for students.

As part of a new community service set up by the University, Physiotherapy students at St Mary’s have had the opportunity to spend six-weeks at care homes in the local area and provide rehabilitation to residents.

This is the first time St Mary’s has collaborated with the three care homes, with students playing a key role in the set-up of this new service. The experience has been incredibly positive for both the students and the Care Home residents, and as a result, this innovative and unique opportunity continues to be offered.

During their visits with the residents, the students used skills they had learnt within different areas including neurology, musculoskeletal health, respiratory health, and elderly care.

Two of the first St Mary’s students to take part in the placement, Ally Whittle and Emma Coombs, have spoken about their experience at the care homes with The Chartered Society of Physiotherapy (CSP).

Speaking to the CSP, Ally said, “This has been a brilliant experience, allowing us to be involved with the set-up of a new service and giving us exposure to an area of physiotherapy that is definitely appreciated and required.”

Emma added, “We felt supported by our clinical educators as we already had relationships from being taught by them at the University. It was great to learn from the clinical educators, particularly as they were so experienced in the different fields of neurological, MSK and respiratory conditions we were seeing.”

School of Allied Health and Life Sciences Head at St Mary’s, Elaine Mullally, said, “The Physiotherapy team have worked tirelessly to expand and diversify the placement offer for our students at St Mary’s University. The evolving role of physiotherapists requires us to ensure that our graduates are exposed to a wide range of learning and clinical placement experiences.

“This innovative approach is one that the team are very proud of and that the students have gained a lot from. I must give special thanks to Tara Crossley and Jo Moody for their work in setting up this opportunity, supported by the Course Lead Clare Gibson, and several members of the Physiotherapy team who provide expert supervision to the students while they are on placement.”

You can read the full interview with Ally and Emma at www.csp.org.uk/news/2024-02-27-new-service-set-unique-community-rehabilitation-placement