Functional Rehabilitation is a process of getting people back to their lives through a restoration of being able to do what they want when they want (self sufficiency) including being fit enough to return to work whilst decreasing any dependancy upon health care services. Functional rehabilitation is not just exercise because the goal is to improve neurological function to return motor control back to normal.

How you use your body is key in developing pain syndromes, injuries, degeneration and attention disorders. Functional use of your body can be compromised through injury, developmental problems and inconsistent or abnormal loading of the joints. Waddell a consultatnt orthopaedic surgeon from Scotland describes the difference between pain and function as an important difference to delineate in the management of the chronic back pain patient called disability. Technically if you are unable to do what you want when you want you have a level of disability and functional rehabilitation ensures we work on our weakest link to improve our overall strength, physical and cognitive abilities. At Life Right we see the process of identifying dysfunction as narrating the story of how pain or disibility came into being.

The longer a person is off work with chronic low back pain the lower their chances are of returning to work suggesting that over time rehabilitation could be less effective. Rather than leave and put off getting yourself back begin sooner and you’ll have greater chances of gaining a full recovery from disibility and pain quicker. Improving your ability to be better able to ‘turn back the clock’ and be happy with yourself. In Britain 50% of all therapy for low back pain is provided by the private sector meaning the NHS (a free service at point of delivery) is not providing adequate care for back pain patients according to Waddell. Over 15 years on from Waddell’s observations of a gap in care within the NHS, an inclusion of new services has not occured and what has is a renaming of the same previous services. The rising number of long term conditions and nothing being able to be done on the NHS is a clear indicator of a need for change. Those lucky enough to be able to afford private services are proof they work because people will not pay for services if they do not have to on a like for like basis.