Celebrating the CF physiotherapy teams supporting our South Australian community

Meet the WCH CF Physio team

The WCH CF Physio team supports children and families across clinic, hospital and, in some circumstances, at home or school.

Michael from the team shared an insight into the people behind the service and how they work with families to make physiotherapy and exercise part of everyday life.

Can you introduce us to the WCH CF Physio team and their roles?

Our CF physio team includes Kira, our Head of Unit, who oversees the management of respiratory patients across the hospital, including CF.

Emma and Rosie share the PICU role and support patients who are very unwell in intensive care, as well as helping on the wards when they can.

Olivia is our newest team member and is currently completing a six-month rotation working with respiratory patients.

Sara and Mel are our physiotherapy assistants and often support CF inpatients with treatments including percussion, bubble PEP, PEP and exercise.

And lastly, there’s me — Michael! I work in CF Clinic and Hospital in the Home, which means I can also see people with CF at home or school.

Yes, there is no escape from physio even when you leave hospital!

What can physiotherapy support look like for children living with CF?

Our physiotherapy is mainly about trying to keep lungs as strong and mucus-free as possible.

Part of that involves specific airway-clearance exercises using things like percussion or breathing devices such as PEP. The other part is general exercise, which can also help clear the lungs.

So, it’s not all boring! Walking the dog or playing football with friends can still make your physio happy.

How do you make physio, airway clearance and exercise manageable for different ages?

We try to make physiotherapy manageable by finding ways to fit it into the day as naturally as possible.

On its own, it isn’t always much fun — we are aware! But we all have sedentary activities we do every day, whether that’s watching TV, listening to music, reading a book or scrolling on our phones.

If you can get good at concentrating on breathing through your physio device at the same time for 15 minutes, maybe you’ll forget you’re doing it. That’s the dream anyway!

Babies don’t doom scroll, of course, but they get a free cuddle with mum or dad — otherwise, there’s always Bluey.

How do you work with families to build routines and confidence around treatment?

Building a routine can be hard because everybody already has a lot happening in their day.

We try to work with families to find a time that works best for physio and exercise. There will also be days when you simply don’t have that 15–30 minutes, and that’s okay.

The aim is to make physio effective when you can do it. For children in particular, we encourage families to see whether it can become family time, rather than something that is happening only to one person. Even just sitting alongside someone while they do their physio counts.

If families aren’t feeling confident, we’re always happy to chat in clinic. Hospital in the Home can also provide additional support for eligible families living within 50km of the hospital.

What’s one thing you wish people better understood about physiotherapy and CF?

One thing I wish people better understood is the long-term benefit physiotherapy can have for lung health.

It can be difficult to stay motivated to do something every day when you don’t necessarily see an immediate benefit. But over time, regularly missing physio and not exercising can contribute to problems that are difficult to reverse.

I’ve personally been called annoying by many young people with CF — and I don’t deny it — but it’s for a good cause, I promise!

Finally, what would you like to say to the children and families you support?

We love interacting with everyone in the CF community and helping wherever we can.

Modulators have made a lot of people healthier, which has been wonderful. The only sad part for us is that we get to see you all less!

We understand if you don’t miss us quite as much — stay healthy!

Catching up with the RAH CF Physio team

For the Royal Adelaide Hospital CF Physio team, it has also been a busy and exciting year in CF care.

The recent Australasian Cystic Fibrosis Conference in Geelong was a highlight, bringing CF physiotherapists from around Australia together to share knowledge, learn from one another and hear updates from clinics across the country.

For the RAH team, the common goal remains continuing to improve the quality of physiotherapy care throughout the lifespan of people living with CF.

This includes adapting physiotherapy care to the changing needs of people using highly effective CFTR modulator therapies, while continuing to work closely with patients to support physical fitness, lung health and general wellbeing.

A changing team

The RAH team is also saying goodbye to Zoe Ottavi, who has spent the past 12 months working with the team on rotation.

A huge thank you to Zoe for all her hard work and dedication to the CF community over the past year.

As Zoe finishes her rotation, Matilda will be joining the team for the next 12 months and will no doubt become a familiar face to many adults within our CF community.