Who are home visits for?
- People who are too breathless or unwell to travel.
- After discharge from hospital, while you are getting back on your feet.
- People who use oxygen and find travelling difficult.
- Setting up an exercise or airway clearance routine in your own home environment.
- People with limited mobility, or who no longer drive and have no one to bring them in.
What happens in a home visit
A home visit covers the same ground as a clinic appointment, in the place where you actually have to manage your breathing. Your physiotherapist will usually:
- Take a history and listen to your chest, and check your oxygen levels, breathing pattern and effort.
- Work through airway clearance with you if you have sputum, and help you find the positions and technique that work in your own bed or chair.
- Check your inhaler and spacer technique with the devices you actually use, and look at how your medications are stored and remembered.
- Set up a walking or exercise plan that fits your home: your hallway, your steps, your kitchen bench for support.
- Look at practical things that cost you breath — the path from the bedroom to the bathroom, the stairs at the front door, how you get to the washing line.
- Leave you with a written plan, and talk with family or carers if you'd like them there.
If you have a device such as an Acapella, Aerobika or AirPhysio, have it handy: we can check your technique and your cleaning routine at the same time. Our device guides cover the same instructions in writing.
Where we travel
We visit homes, retirement villages and residential aged care across metropolitan Adelaide, mostly in the eastern and inner suburbs near our Hazelwood Park clinic. Travel time limits how far we can go in a day, so please call and we'll tell you honestly whether we can cover your address, or suggest someone closer if we can't.
Getting ready for the visit
- Have your medications, inhalers and spacers in one spot.
- Have any recent letters, discharge summaries or lung function results available.
- Wear clothing you can move and exercise in, and have supportive shoes nearby.
- Let us know about parking, security doors, gate codes, or a dog who'd rather we didn't come in.
Fees and funding
Home visits cost more than clinic appointments because they include a travel charge; see our fees page for current amounts. If you are a DVA client with a current referral, or your NDIS plan funds physiotherapy, home visits can usually be covered. A Medicare GP Chronic Condition Management Plan rebate can also apply if your GP has referred you.
How to arrange one
Home visits aren't bookable online, because we need to check your address and fit the travel into a physiotherapist's day. Call us on (08) 8364 3706 and we'll find a time. If clinic appointments are possible for you, they're usually faster to get and less expensive — we're happy to talk through which makes more sense.