The Pitch
Reach has developed a 100% online physiotherapy app to help MSK pain sufferers (the #1 cause of disability globally) access quality and evidence based care and build up the active habits that are shown to most effectively treat and prevent pain.
The What
Pain management and prevention should be centred around a multidimensional approach - focusing on physical activity and exercise but also on building understanding of pain and the confidence in one's ability to deal with pain. Frustratingly, MSK pain is a global epidemic, and a lot of the current treatment is part of the problem, not the solution: 1. Still, too many health practitioners promote passive treatment approaches and passive coping strategies. 2. For most, the active approach that best treats pain requires active habits to be formed, which includes both belief and behaviour change. Sadly, no one offers this high-quality care in a way that supports habit change. At Reach, we build up people’s ability and confidence to self-manage, so they do not become dependent on health professionals. In everything we do, we strive to make recovery and prevention more reassuring, accessible and motivating.
The How
Currently patients complete a 8 minute online assessment and receive a personalised video exercise program, we then motivate and evolve their program to recovery.
During your time with Reach, we’ll work with you to develop the confidence you need to stay active at your own pace, in a way that suits your lifestyle. We’ll also support you with ongoing educational material to make sure you fully understand what’s going on ‘under the bonnet’ of your pain. You’ll get access to new educational material at checkpoints throughout your road to recovery so that you can make informed choices about how best to deal with your symptoms and keep progressing.
The Why
This is where it all started, and what drives everyone at Reach, everyday.
- We really believe in all the benefits of being active - social, stress relief, increased energy, better health and more.
- And we admire all those trying their hardest to make themselves and their lives better - and I genuinely believe most people are trying their hardest in life (shout out to Brene Brown’s book on Shame and her ted talks for this learning).
- There are loads of great tools and people helping you to be active and stay active, but when things go wrong and you’re held back by pain and injury, the available choices are all so frustratingly inconvenient, slow and boring.
- SO, we are ‘empowering people when their active best is under threat’. And we hope that by helping people become stronger and move forward, we can help make their lives that much better, in-turn increasing their capacity to make the lives of those around them better, and bit by bit we’ll make the world that bit better.