FAQs

You do not need a referral from another professional to be assessed and managed by I Am Me. It may be, depending on your child’s needs, that other professionals are involved in caring for your child. In order to ensure that your child’s needs are being met and to be clear on each professional’s role and management, it would be preferable that your consent is given for I Am Me to communicate with those involved to optimise your child’s care, making sure everyone is working together as a team for you and your child.

There are many reasons why families seek private physiotherapy. It may be that you are currently on an NHS waiting list and would like to be seen sooner or it may be that you would like more therapy time than the NHS is able to offer. Whatever your reason for seeking private input, I Am Me is committed to working with another physiotherapy service when needed to ensure that our input complements each other and we support your child to thrive and grow. NHS waiting lists times will not be affected if you choose to engage with I Am Me, but private input can be helpful in the time you are waiting to be seen.

There are many children and young people living with rare conditions – some have a diagnosis, some don’t. Your child can receive physiotherapy support despite living with a very rare or undiagnosed condition. We will spend time during the initial virtual assessment exploring your child’s needs and working together to explore goals for physiotherapy. Paediatric physiotherapists tend to work closely with other health professionals, particularly doctors or other therapists. This may be during investigations where a diagnosis is being worked towards, or in the ongoing management. Despite working outside the NHS, I Am Me can feed into the multidisciplinary team that may be working with your child to ensure that assessment findings and management plans are communicated appropriately.  

I Am Me intends to make physiotherapy a part of everyday life, making it less of a burdensome task by slotting it into your child’s ‘real life’. This means that therapy will take place away from medical and clinical settings, and generally in environments where your child is at ease and familiar, maybe at home or at school. Sessions may also take place in more unique settings such as baby groups, the park, swimming lessons or extracurricular clubs to optimise your child’s confidence in participating or functioning in the world around them. We will work together to tailor each session to ensure that your child is being given opportunities they should be able to access, always.

I Am Me is based in South Gloucestershire, in the Yate/Chipping Sodbury area, and predominantly covers the South West region. There is an additional charge for travel over ten miles from BS37 7DH.

It is a part of life that there will be times when something unpredictable occurs making it difficult for the planned therapy session to go ahead.

The video consultation gives us the opportunity to get to know each other. Together we will explore what has and hasn’t worked until now, how you would like it to work, maybe with some new ideas and therapy goals. We will work together to shape physiotherapy input for your child. Your child’s needs and priorities will change over time and therefore we will work flexibly to ensure that they are fully supported throughout. Following the initial consultation, we will arrange a therapy session which will be mainly assessment based so that I can meet your child and get a good understanding of their abilities. From here, together we can make an initial therapy plan.