When it comes to your health, a new clinic at Camosun College is preaching prevention over waiting for a health scare to decide to make changes.
The Athletic and Exercise Therapy Clinic opened at the college’s Lansdowne campus in January, bringing a resource to athletes and to those simply hoping to improve their health with a focused, professional approach.
“It’s much more focused on a lifestyle change, rather than treatment,” said Dr. Peter Rehor, dean of the Centre for Sport and Exercise Education.
The clinic includes therapy specific to athletes, including musculoskeletal and postural evaluations, sport and work injury treatment, and concussion education.
Alongside the athletic therapy component of the clinic is a focus on exercise therapy, and chronic disease and obesity management for the common person. The clinic is open to all, for a fee.
Rehor divides people into three types when it comes to health. There are those who actively pursue preventative health measures, those who have had health issues and are seeking treatment, and those who are likely heading towards a health problem.
It’s this third group of people the clinic is geared towards.
“These people have not had a heart attack yet, they’re not visiting our health care system, but they’re walking around with all the risk factors,” Rehor said. “We are after this group. … That is the group we would like to see in the clinic.”
The clinic is staffed by senior students in the Bachelor of Athletic and Exercise Therapy degree program, working closely with professional athletic therapists and exercise physiologists.
A collection of space-age-looking machines provide foot scans, bone mineral density analyses and an in-depth measurement of body composition, carried out by the unique-to-B.C. InBody machine. All of this information is used to assess a person’s current health status and create a plan to improve it.
From this point staff at the clinic are able to work with the participant to come up with a nutrition and exercise plan. The last service of the clinic is exercise adherence, which tracks progress and provides motivation.
“You want to know exactly you should be going after, as opposed to the shotgun approach to fitness which is trying to strengthen everything equally,” said Mike Davies, an athletic therapist and instructional assistant at Camosun. “This is a great place to find out where to begin.”
Specialized programs are planned relating to childhood obesity, as well as independence for seniors.
Some of the services offered by the clinic may be covered by extended health benefits.
For more information on the clinic visit camosun.ca/aetclinic or to book an appointment email aetclinic@camosun.bc.ca or call 250-370-3924.