“Once you have the physical activity started. Then you can begin to feel that you are not in this prison anymore”. Refugee experience of post-traumatic stress physiotherapy

Sammanfattning: Abstract Background There is limited research and guidelines regarding physiotherapy as a treatment approach      for post-traumatic stress (PTS). Refugee experience of physiotherapy interventions is hoped                      to contribute to awareness of the subject and to give insight into this developing field of the         profession. Purpose The purpose of the study was to investigate and describe refugees experience of post-             traumatic stress physiotherapy. The study was interested in both refugee experience of          treatment itself and of possible effects. Design and Method Qualitative explorative design. The study was based on five semi-structured interviews. A        qualitative, content analysis was used to process the data. Results          The analysis showed that the refugees faced many physical and psychological barriers to         treatment, especially relating to pain and somatisation, however they were able to                    experience increased bodily comfort during treatment itself. The relationship to         physiotherapist, the psychological impact of the treatment environment and other social      factors were also described as important to experience. Physiotherapy was described as positively affecting patient outcomes both in physical and mental health, despite certain uncontrollable/unmanageable symptoms making this difficult. The refugees were able to achieve generalisation of physiotherapy into their day-to-                     day life enabling them to self-manage to some extent and feel liberated from PTS symptoms. Conclusion The study agrees with the available literature on the effectiveness of treating refugee              patients suffering from post-traumatic stress with physiotherapy, not just to improve            physical health outcomes but even to give holistic improvements.  Keywords Post-traumatic stress, refugee, physiotherapy, experiences