What is holistic wound care?

Holistic wound care encompasses assisting the whole person, not just the wound on the person, for optimal healing potential. For simple & complex wound healing, a team approach is enlisted to maximise the most current and relevant, evidence-based practice that may include, but is not limited to, medical, allied, & complementary health:

Let’s change the perspective on wound care.

We don’t want to ‘manage’ wounds. We want to ‘heal’ them.

Skin Rehab™ is driving change in the wound healing space by providing individualised pathways from a multidisciplinary & collaborative team approach that puts you, the client, at the centre.

We optimise the skill set of our team by implementing a client-centred approach to therapies, interventions, dressings, education & support, to ensure you get the right treatment strategy at the right time (Australian Medical Association, 2022; Wounds Australia, n.d.).

Comprehensive Consultation, Assessment or Review

from 60 mins $195

Following evidence-based practices, we utilise assessment protocols that can include:

• Skin Assessment & risks for skin integrity breakdown

• Assessment for vascular changes including ankle brachial pressure index (ABPI) of tor brachial pressure index (TBPI) & transcutaneous oxygen pressure

• High risk foot assessment for interventional strategies

• Assessment of the wound (wound bed, peri-wound skin, surrounding skin health)

• Documentation of the wound characteristics including imaging

• Signs & symptoms of infection or inflammation for investigation

• Pain assessment & management strategies

• Previous treatment history & comorbidities/underlying health issues impacting on wound healing

• current skin health regimen, medical history & challenges to wound healing so far

(Wounds Australia, 2016).

Investigations

Based on the initial assessment, the following investigations may need to be implemented.

• wound swabs

• wound cultures

• blood tests, nutritional screening, inflammatory markers & medication reviews

• biopsies (punch, incisional, excisional or tissue removal) to determine tissue status

• Doppler imaging

(International Wound Infection Institute, 2016).

Plan Development

Planning wound healing with you or your loved one involves a team. We pride ourselves on collaborating with leading experts on the Mid North Coast, NSW & their experience, currency in the field & like-minded vision for holistic care, that aligns with the ethos of SkinRehab™.

The wound healing strategies are individualised to your assessment & will include therapies to assist in healing, pain relief, dressing type & frequency, referrals to other clinicians if needed & a consistent review strategy for ongoing adjustments when appropriate. You or your loved one, are at the centre of all discussions.

Implementing the right care, the right modality, at the right time is key to optimising healing.

Getting the plan right for you or your loved one will require insights into your activities of daily living, your mobility, proximity to our clinic, or the need for transportation to receive treatment. Your input is valuable & we welcome your contribution to long-term success (Moore et al., 2014).

Implementation of plan, dressings, therapies & follow up

We have partnered with medical experts for our wound dressings, devices & therapeutic modalities. to bring relief & comfort to your wound as the healing takes place. Some of these therapies can include:

• LED or LLLT (light therapy & low-level laser for pain relief, speeding up the healing & reducing infection, PDT or photodynamic therapy)

• Lymphatic & compression therapies

• Enzymatic & keratolytic agents for cleaning & debriding

• Negative Pressure Wound Therapy (NPWT)

• Electotherapies (galvanism, EMS, ultrasound, electroporation & transdermal drug delivery)

• PRP (Platelet Rich Plasma) is regenerative medicine for slow-healing wounds, bio-remodelling & for the stimulation for healthy dermal tissue

• Microneedling scar revision

• Laser (pain relief, collagen induction, resurfacing sun damage, benign lesion removal, laser-assisted drug delivery, regeneration & rehabilitation of damaged skin, scar revision, vascular & pigmentation issues)

• Hyperbaric oxygen therapies

• various wound dressings, cleansing agents & bandaging options.

(Sussman & Bates Jensen, 2012).