Osteopathic Services in different health situations / challenges
Please note, the discussions here are NOT a claim to clinical efficacy. This means that as not all parts of an osteopaths approach have as much evidence as others, pragmatic and well reasoned conversations must occur between you and your osteopath, to help you understand what justifications there are, and what ideas underpin the proposed care in your situation. ​ Each osteopath will package a number of health interventions to suit your individual needs, and so each 'treatment package' differs between each patient. So, evidence informs practice but does not always dictate it - practice can be varied according to your individual needs or situation or own personal health views and wishes. ​​ OSTEOPATHS TREAT YOU, which means that osteopaths don't apply the same list or protocol of treatments in every case / to every person. So, many elements may have some evidence, limited evidence or some may have much greater evidence, but they are all applied together / grouped up in an individual package - and so this makes the application of osteopathy a complex intervention.  ​​ These sections help you see how osteopaths see things clinically, how they determine what might be relevant in your care, what ideas and rationale underpins it, what evidence there is, what is emergent, and what osteopaths would wish to see explored in more depth. ​​ OSTEOPATHS RESPECT YOUR CHOICE TO ACCESS INFORMATION ABOUT A THERAPEUTIC EFFECT, OR CLINICAL OBSERVATION OR HYPOTHESIS, EVEN IF IT IS NOT YET FULLY EVIDENCED. ​​ Osteopaths have extensive training in anatomy, physiology, pathology, theories of health and disease, and can evaluate risk or when further investigation is required, who to refer you to and they use all that knowledge and skill to balance what evidence is there, what relevance it may have for you, and they discuss this with you and can therefore propose things they feel from clinical experience may support you, even if not all elements are fully evidenced. ​ Osteopaths therefore help you come to an informed decision about the care you wish to receive. In this way the osteopath proceeds with your informed consent about the way they propose to support and help you. ​​​ PLEASE DISCUSS YOUR SITUATION, CONCERNS AND QUESTIONS WITH YOUR OSTEOPATH - THEY ARE THERE TO HELP YOU UNDERSTAND AND TO GIVE YOU INSIGHTS AND CONCEPTS THAT MAY HELP YOU IN YOUR CARE DECISIONS.​
The osteopathic service each osteopath can offer you will be individual to them, and also to you and your needs.
About the osteopathic service - the integration of osteopathic philosophy and concepts of health and disease, together with relevant health care approaches within the broader osteopathic scope (of patient support, education, rehabilitation and self-help strategies).
Osteopathy is an emerging practice and although founded over 100 years ago, continues to develop and deepen its practice potential. Osteopathy is now supported by an increasing evidence base and osteopaths utilise a wide range of clinical and knowledge information from many medical, healthcare, philosophical and other sources. Through their extensive pre-registration (often to Masters level), osteopaths are independent health practitioners who support the public directly and who can support the NHS by working as Allied Health Professionals. Osteopaths remain autonomous first contact practitioners, who support patients using approaches based on their founding principles. ​ This section discusses research and evidence, and illustrates the ideas and concepts osteopaths hold about how women and children may be supported by osteopathic hands on care. Not all evidence about osteopathic practice is currently complete, but this section will help you understand what osteopaths are seeking to explore, and how they may contribute to the care of women and children though independent practice, and through collaboration with the wider healthcare community. ​ Osteopathy is a complex intervention, as it adds lots of elements together into one package. Complex interventions are harder to research, as the components within vary (and the aim of research is usually to reduce variation, to get more unified answers). Each element the osteopath adds in, is determined by what THEY can observe, perceive, feel and sometimes intuit about you and your situation. These information sections are not about claiming proof that osteopaths can cure things, and even using the word 'treat' is misleading - osteopaths 'treat' you. Treating a condition usually means applying the same researched list of therapeutic items to you and to everyone with the same problem. This is not what osteopaths do. So, when osteopaths treat YOU, some or more elements of your presentation may change or improve, and so your 'condition' or 'problem' may change, but osteopaths feel that this is because they have helped your mind and body regulate itself and recover, and use its own healing vitality to resolve issues that are currently causing you problems, rather than the osteopath having 'cured you'. So there is usually many ways you can be supported, regardless of your condition, and how to help YOU is what the osteopath focuses on. ​ Osteopaths work to enable the way your body helps itself, they work to motivate you, and improve your self-efficacy. But in many cases this is challenging, and where your body needs support, osteopaths help your tissues work more physiologically, and in a more connected way, so that your inner capacity to recover and function / feel well and healthy is enhanced. Touch and hands on care are vital to the osteopathic perspective
The Osteopathic Perspective
Each of the sections, posts / blogs about different presentations such as prolapse, endometriosis, pregnancy care, infant feeding and so on represents osteopathic ideas, concepts and where available information about evidence, and is discussed in the context of the overall OSTEOPATHIC SERVICE you could receive - and so it is NOT a list of techniques - the SERVICE - is the case analysis and thought process and the individual combination f elements that your osteopath can put together for you - often drawing on many health practices and many fields of evidence and understanding.
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This information is to help you understand what a visit to an osteopath might mean, what you might expect, and what type of thinking an osteopath could contribute about you, your situation and how you might be helped.
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Many health practitioners have different thoughts and concepts that they ring to the table, and this website is to help you see how osteopathic thinking may be different, so you can better explore if you feel that thinking and seeing may help you in your health decisions and care choices.
Osteopathic services in women's health, maternity and paediatric care
Please see these sections for more detailed information about different clinical presentations and the perspectives osteopaths have in a variety of situations.
