A day in the life of… an ECL Physiotherapist

Our first candidate for our new ‘day in the life’ column is Tomislav (Tomi) Ciglenecki, ECL Senior Physiotherapist in the West Essex Regulated team. He is also currently providing clinical support to the physiotherapists across ECL Day Services.

Tomi has been with ECL since 2007 when the short term services in the community contract began and has been a physiotherapist for 23 years this year. In this article Tomi gives us an insight in to how varied his role is:

“My main responsibility within our regulated services is working with customers to help them achieve their reablement goals and regain their independence.

“The job is varied and very busy. Because I work across two services at the moment, I have two typical days really one for regulated and one for day services.

“In regulated my day starts with going through all the referrals and then I plan the visits for the day. This planning involves discussing the assessments with the therapy assistants, going over what has been achieved over the last few days and any changes to the needs of the customers.

“I will do anything between three and six visits a day. In these visits I work with the customers and therapy assistants to agree on and delivery their physiotherapy journey. We cover a large area so on my visits I can over anywhere from to Buckhurst Hill, Harlow all the way to Uttlesford. So it takes a lot of planning to maximise the routes and see as many customers as possible in one day – it can be quite a challenge!

“I am often also involved in multidisciplinary team meetings liaising with other social services colleagues and outside therapists such as the NHS community teams in West Essex. And I am also involved with staff training in regulated services for example, training staff in the safe moving and handling of customers which I particularly enjoy.

“Within day services I am on a secondment to their clinical team for six months to help develop the service and provide support. This involves visiting the various hubs to carry out customer reviews, working alongside the day opportunities therapists to adjust care plans as needed and delivering staff straining to the community care assistants so that they can continue the exercises with the customers as part of their daily activities. I was really excited to take on a secondment to the Day Opportunities Learning Disabilities service because I have a background in Learning Disabilities and I felt that this experience would be put to good use.”

What Tomi enjoys most about the role:

“The job is very rewarding. There is no better reward than when you see a customer who was bed bound when you first met them progress to walking and being discharged as independent. That’s the best! As far as I’m aware, ECL is the only care provider that I know of that employs Physiotherapists and Therapists and I really feel that the work that we do is proving that there is a place for having Physiotherapists and Therapists on staff through other social care provision. As we make a big difference to the lives of our customers.”