Emily Coningham
Treating Therapist
Emily has over 15 years experience within all hospital clinical areas as well as community rehabilitation and management of chronic disease. She has extensive experience (10 years+) as a senior clinician mentoring junior physiotherapists, with seven of those years as a senior physiotherapist with Queensland Health.
Shaun was a man who has sustained multiple injuries 9 years ago after a boat accident. He presented with an above elbow amputation of his L) upper limb after sustaining a complete brachial plexus injury. He had suffered a traumatic brain injury that had resulted in many mental health issues including psychosis. Shaun had previously lived in shared accommodation and had a bad experience while residing there. He now lived with his mother and continued to have increased pain levels in shoulder, ongoing mental health concerns, many cognitive deficits particularly with memory and attention and difficulties with participation in activities of daily living and leisure. Shaun was referred for both Occupational therapy and physiotherapy services for assistive technology, cognitive therapy, provision of exercises for both upper and lower body and social skills retraining.
A comprehensive assessment was carried out with Shaun and he highlighted his goals as finding meaningful employment, reducing pain and increasing movement of L) UL in order to be fitted with an appropriate prosthesis, improving his memory, attention and problem solving ability and finding appropriate accommodation that was close to family and where he would be well supported.
Shaun was seen twice weekly for Occupational Therapy and once weekly for Physiotherapy. After 6 weeks his memory and attention had greatly improved. He was able to attend to a 60-minute therapy session with only minimal prompting for redirection. Shaun was able to remember his appointment times and was home for all of his appointments without cancelling once.
Shaun was prescribed a new mobile phone to assist him with scheduling appointments and using applications to assist with memory. He was also prescribed an adaptive controller, adaptive gaming kit, foot pedals and steering wheel to allow him to engage in leisure activities of his choice and be able to do so without having to rely on both arms.
His UL strength and active range of movement improved and allowed him to have a suitable prosthetic that he could use at home and in the community. He is very close to gaining meaningful employment and both the Occupational Therapist and Physiotherapist will continue to the progress function and mobility.
CASE STUDY: RHEUMATOID ARTHRITIS
