InReach Online Physiotherapy's mission statement is "to provide high quality Physiotherapy services to people in rural/remote areas, people who prefer not to leave the comfort of their home or people with busy lives that can't waste the time travelling to in-person appointments by utilizing teleconferencing and other technology".
The highest demand for our services are in northern and rural communities. These are communities outside cities and without in-person Physio. These individual otherwise would have to travel significant distances to seek care. We have clients on Haida Gwaii where there is one full-time public Physiotherapist at the Queen Charlotte City hospital, no private Physiotherapist and no concussion specialist. In Fraser Lake, we have built a relationship with the Fraser Lake Medical Clinic in which we provide telephysio services in the clinic or at the patients home, based on patient preference and comfort with technology. Most of these patients come through physician referral at the medical clinic. With this project, we are able to provide services for people who use the Fraser Lake Medical Clinic and live in Fort St. James, Endako, Burns Lake and Vanderhoof. Another example, our Physiotherapist, Chris Kennedy, travels to Galiano Island (part of the Gulf Islands with Mayne, Pender and Salt Spring Islands) to provide in-person initial assessments every 4-6 weeks and follows-up with patients using telephysio services. That being said, we actively assess and treat clients in larger cities such as Vancouver, Kamloops, Kelowna, Victoria and Nanaimo who simply prefer to be seen at-home.
Since the COVID-19 pandemic, it has been great to treat residence in main metropolitan cities throughout British Columbia as in-person Physiotherapy is not available at this time. As well, COVID-19 has brought a huge amount of awareness to the possibility of telephysio and telerehab as a service (What is telephysio/telerehab? Read more here).
Our InReach physiotherapists are spread out across the province which ensure we are familiar with the region and resources that you have available. As well, our therapists have a diverse background of working in different communities across the province. Nancy Hillier is currently providing telephysio out of Golden, BC where she gets to maximize her passion for ski touring and mountaineering. Natasha Prokop is working out of Fernie - a happy medium as she has lived in Alberta and BC throughout her life. Shannon Lim calls Squamish home and Patrick Chiu is a native of Vancouver. Although Chris Kennedy and I currently live in Vancouver, we have experience working in northern BC including Prince Rupert and Prince George.
If you are interested in our services, please contact us and we will connect you with the appropriate therapist based on your reason for booking and where you live. If you are in immediate need of an appointment, call or email and we will schedule an appointment for the same day.
Physiotherapy is a key contributor to the health and mobility of Canadians and with recent improvements in internet and video-conferencing technology, telephysio is very viable means of treatment. Aaron Dobie, Registered Physiotherapist