Telerehabilitation and Conventional Physiotherapy Program for Caregivers of Individuals With Special Needs

Comparison of the Effectiveness of Telerehabilitation and Conventional Physiotherapy Program in Chronic Neck and Back Pain Seen in Caregivers of Individuals With Special Needs

The study was planned to investigate the effectiveness of home therapy method due to the difficulties experienced by caregivers of individuals with special needs in accessing physiotherapy and rehabilitation services for chronic neck and back pain.

Caring for a disabled child is a very difficult and long process for parents. In this process, mothers and fathers exert a lot of effort while caring for the child, carrying the child and playing an active role in its rehabilitation. For these reasons, it is reported that the physical health of mothers and fathers is negatively affected and they often experience waist and back pain. Telerehabilitation allows patients who cannot access rehabilitation due to geographical, economic or physical disabilities to benefit from rehabilitation services. The distance problem is especially valid in cases where people live far from the rehabilitation center, there are no rehabilitation professionals specialized in the relevant disease in the place of residence, when transfers are difficult due to mobility problems, and in cases where it is not possible or risky to go to the rehabilitation center due to epidemics, as is the case today. Telerehabilitation has the potential to overcome all these problems. The study was planned to investigate the effectiveness of home therapy method due to the difficulties experienced by caregivers of individuals with special needs in accessing physiotherapy and rehabilitation services for chronic neck and back pain.

Inclusion Criteria:

• Being between 20-60 years old,
• Being a special needs child caregiver,
• Mechanical neck and back pain lasting 3 months or longer

Exclusion Criteria:

• Those who are caregivers of hearing and visually impaired children,
• Having previously undergone surgery in the cervical region,
• Patients with a history of inflammatory or infective arthritis in the cervical spine,
• Congenital spinal cord anomaly,
• history of malignancy,
• Having neuropathic pain
• Radiculopathy, myelopathy or other neurological disorders
• Those with chronic lung disease
• Vestibular disorders,
• Those with a history of continuous drug use,
• Individuals who have been involved in an exercise or physiotherapy program in the last 3 months,
• He will not be able to read the scales and the evaluation parameters will be excluded from the study.