May is National Physiotherapy Month! A time to highlight Physiotherapists and celebrate the contributions they make in their communities.
Thank you to our Physiotherapists!
Physiotherapists are highly skilled primary health care professionals with a significant role in health promotion, prevention and treatment of injury and disease, including chronic disease.
In primary care, Physiotherapists are an essential part of team-based care. Although you will find them at our HFHT hub locations they work closely with our family doctors and other providers to support patients. If pain, weakness or movement problems make daily life harder, they can help patients to feel better, move better, feel more in control of their body and get back to doing what they enjoy or need to do! Physiotherapists will help explain what may be happening with a patient’s body, use hands-on treatments (e.g., manual therapy, acupuncture) where appropriate, and teach exercises and strategies to reduce pain and/or restore function.
A big thank you to our incredible Physiotherapy team! We are so lucky to have this group of highly skilled, kind, caring, and innovative providers at the HFHT. They always go above and beyond to support patients and one another. They have made incredible contributions to our organization and community through their individual sessions, groups and workshops, and program improvement projects (i.e. opening a pessary clinic!) this past year. Thank you for the incredible work you do and even more incredible people and providers that you are! Happy National PT Month!
Congratulations to our Physiotherapy Team!
Since November 2025, the Hamilton Family Health Team’s Physiotherapy Team has participated in the Healthcare Excellence Canada Right Care Challenge. Through this initiative, the team focused on connecting patients to the right care at the right time—helping reduce avoidable Emergency Department (ED) visits.
Emergency Departments often see patients with concerns such as abdominal and pelvic pain, back pain, and urinary disorders. Frail adults and individuals living in lower socioeconomic neighbourhoods are also more likely to experience avoidable ED visits. In response, the Physiotherapy team strengthened health promotion, early intervention, and access to care.
Key initiatives the team engaged in included:
- Partnering with other disciplines to offer free patient education and self-management programs, including the Managing Chronic Pain Workshop, GLA:D exercise group (for knee and hip osteoarthritis), Just Walk, the Healthy Aging Series and more
- Engaging in professional development in areas of chronic pain and pelvic health
- Launching a pessary fitting clinic to improve access to care for stress urinary incontinence and pelvic organ prolapse
- Updating referral forms to support appropriate triaging and quality improvement tracking
- Introducing an anonymous patient survey to understand whether patients might otherwise have visited the ED
Since launching this work, the team has received the Right Care Challenge Registration Award, the Impact Journey Award and the Collective Progress Award. This achievement reflects a true team effort. Special thanks to all those that made this work possible for patient care, including our incredible team of dedicated Physiotherapists and Shared Services Staff who were involved in the project. To learn more visit our Physiotherapy webpage.
Did you know? We offer free physiotherapy groups and workshops that are open to the public!
Groups and workshops include:
- Just Walk: A healthcare-provider-led walking program.
- Healthy Aging: A workshop series on preventing dementia, reducing social isolation, bone health, nutrition, sleep and more.
- Managing Chronic Pain: A workshop series that focuses on pain management and improving quality of life.