New physiotherapist joins Baldwin Street health care team
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Zachary Hollingham, a new physiotherapist at The Baldwin Street Chiropractic and Physiotherapy Clinic, focuses on one-on-one personalized, one-on-one treatments.
Beginning in January 2017, the Baldwin Street Chiropractic and Wellness Clinic (40 Baldwin Street), which had been primarily a chiropractic and massage clinic for its first 25 years, introduced Hollingham to their health care team.
"I did my training at Western (UWO) first, then McMaster," said Hollingham, born and raised in the Niagara region. "I started in Woodstock, for the first year and a half of my career."
He was recruited to take the "physio role" at The Baldwin Street facility.
"It's been really good, considering I started with absolutely no patients. I'm on my way."
As of March, he estimated being just over 60 per cent capacity, which at 100 per cent would be about 60-70 patients per week. His hours vary - he works as early as 7:30 a.m. and as late as 6 p.m.
"I work every day but Thursday here - so Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday - and I'm pretty flexible if people have a hard time making those hours because of work. The 7:30 (morning) slots, and the 5, 5:30, 6 (evening) slots are really popular. I'll probably need to expand my hours a little bit once I get fuller."
Who needs to see a physiotherapist?
"Really, it's anything from a variety of injuries to long term pain, or after a surgery. I'd say the most common things I see are long term low back pain, shoulder pain, knee pain, arthritis of various types and areas, and as well people who have had a workplace accident or motor vehicle accident. So really any injury or long term pain that someone's had, there are definitely ways I can help them out."
Sports injuries are also common.
"I have a couple runners in right now, so any sports injury for sure. Adolescents to adults or seniors. All age groups, all varieties, all different types of injuries. It keeps it interesting for me."
Initially, his referral base came through internal contacts at the Baldwin Street facility, but over time he has been getting word-of-mouth referrals from patients and other physicians in town.
The personal approach, he said, is key.
"There's a really big demand (for physiotherapists). And I'd say, what would set me - and our situation here - apart would be the length of the appointments, and the one-on-one nature of them. Really personalizing care to the person who walks through the door.
"What I offer is based on available research evidence. I work part-time as a clinical professor at McMaster University each week. So that allows me to keep up to date on the most current evidence in terms of physio rehab and helping people with their pain.
"I think a big part of my focus is helping people understand what's going on in their body, so they can kind of take control of that. I think that's a huge part of what I do. I take a lot of time with people, hour assessments and half-hour treatments, so that allows me time to address any of their questions or concerns about their condition."
Having chiropractors, massage and physiotherapy services at one facility, he said, offers 'the best of all the worlds.'
"And very often, especially if you have extended health benefits, you can get the best of all three worlds."