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What You Can Expect!

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The Ford Philosophy of Care

The Ford Philosophy of Care takes a unique approach to resolving patient complaints by finding and focusing attention and treatment on the source and cause of pain father than simply treating the symptoms. Although this approach was initially developed to treat patients with low back pain, we now utilize it in the treatment of all musculoskeletal pain and dysfunction. This is why ABC PT offers a consistently higher success rate.

Stabilization

Stabilization begins with issuance of an sacroiliac joint belt, which nearly every patient receives on their first day of therapy. The sacroiliac joint belt is designed to create compressive forces on the sacroiliac joint without restricting the normal rotatory motions involved in gait and transitional motions, such as bending, stooping, sitting, standing and getting in and out of a car. It acts like a cast and should be worn as tightly as possible 24 hours and day, 7 days a week.

Seat Cushion: A wedged seat cushion with a sacral cut-out is issued to those who do a lot of sitting or driving during your day or have a lot of sacroiliac joint ligament laxity allowing the sacrum to move or torsion, creating pain. The function of this cushion is to keep weight off the sacrum to keep pressure off the sacroiliac joint complex. The belt and cushion are employed to avoid or prevent the sacroiliac joint complex from subluxing to allow stability where the loose ligaments can begin to heal and scar down or tighten again.

Positioning: Positioning instructs you on how to sit or lie down without putting undue pressures on the sacroiliac joint or the sacrum itself. A towel roll, wrapped tightly, can be used for sitting at home, in the car and at work. It should be positioned behind the low back, at the crest of the iliac or top of pelvis. The function is to keep you from slumping while sitting. The towel roll forces the pelvis forward, creating a lumbar curve. This, with the seat cushion keeps direct pressure off the sacrum while you are sitting.

Biomechanics: Biomechanics is the study of the mechanics of a living body, especially of the forces exerted by muscles and gravity on the skeletal structure. Biomechanics can be the most difficult task to learn for some while others catch on rather quickly, but this is truly the most important factor involved in maintaining your sacroiliac joint's stability. Mastering this philosophy will give you about a 90-95% chance of successfully maintaining sacroiliac joint alignment. This is because next to just sitting on your tailbone/ sacrum, poor biomechanics is a primary factor impacting your inability to hold sacroiliac joint stability. This knowledge will give you the ability to lift, bend, stoop, squat, and perform transitional movements specific to your own body' specific demands. Once this is mastered, this will not only resolve your current symptoms and dysfunctions; it is the primary factor preventing the return of low back pain for the rest of your life.

Exercises: There are many exercises that trainers, physical therapists, chiropractors and other health care professionals give patients with low back pain that are absolutely detrimental to the integrity and stability of the sacroiliac joint complex. In other words, these exercises will most likely cause a sacroiliac joint rotation or torsion every time you perform them. It is vital that these exercises be terminated and that only exercises recommended by the Ford Philosophy of Care should be employed. We will educate you about why these exercises are preferred and about the biomechanics behind these recommendations.

Home Exercise Program: On day one of your visit, you will be guided through biomechanical strategies, which we will reinforce until you have mastered all the criteria. A home exercise program, which includes a few basic stretches, will be administered on the second day of your therapy.  All stretches are 1 minute long and progressive, with a medium stretch intensity. Pictures are always provided so you can reference at home.

Success: Success is directly related to our compliance, effort and belief in the Ford Philosophy of Care. Those of you who are able to successfully embrace and follow the unique strategies, knowledge and biomechanical knowledge that ABC PT provides can resolve your low back pain and ensure that it will not return. Some patients have a hard time believing the simplicity of this philosophy of care and believe it is something else causing their pain that surgery or medication should be able to fix. Those that do understand and are compliant with the Ford Philosophy of Care will resolve their low back pain issue for life. Those that do not, don’t get better off and have continued flare-ups.

This Ford Philosophy of Care is designed to stop recurrent low back pain using a full-circle approach to treating low back pain

• Correct the problem by aligning the sacroiliac joint
• Show the patient how to self correct the sacroiliac joint
• Provide instruction as to what will dislocate their sacroiliac joint
• Teach patients proper biomechanics to prevent recurrence of dislocations
• Consciously change the way they move until they do so on a subconscious level.