We took the last 10 days to take a slow and cautious approach to completing our risk assessment with the rolled back Stage 3 Restrictions here in Victoria.

I've just listened to Dan Andrews' update for Sunday 19/07/20, and after reviewing all the data of the last 10 days since the Stage 3 Restrictions were re-announced, I have some updates on our risk assessment.

And its good news!
Our local council area, Knox Council, has stayed a relatively low risk zone. Knox has remained one of the least effected regions of Metro Melbourne throughout the pandemic. As of 19/07/20, there are only 9 active cases of COVID19 in the Knox region, and the data shows good statistics on very low new cases occurring in our area, and good rates of recovery.

The Department of Health has advised that Myotherapy and Remedial Massage appointments are still allowed under the current Stage 3 Restrictions.


This means that you are currently allowed to continue getting treatment for chronic pain conditions, injuries, or pain from your new work from home set up!
We can help you with headaches, back pain, sciatica, shoulder pain, fibromyalgia pain, RSI, nerve symptoms like pins & needles and shooting pains, and these sorts of specific pains or injuries.

From Monday 20th July, we will be open these hours:
        Monday, Tuesday & Friday 9am-7pm
        Wednesday & Thursday 9am-4pm
        Saturday 9am-6pm


Dan Andrews has announced today that from midnight on Wednesday this week, it is mandatory to wear protective face masks outside of your home. This is to protect you, your family and your community. We know this may not feel comfortable during your treatment, but we will ask that you keep your mask on during your appointment.


Help us to keep COVID19 out of our clinic:

• Don't book an appointment if you have any cold or flu type symptoms like fever, cough, sore throat or if you have been in contact with someone with COVID19
• If you develop symptoms after making a booking, please do not attend your appointment and let us know with as much notice as possible
• Wear a mask
• If you or anyone in your household have been in contact with someone with confirmed or suspected COVID19, please inform us so we can reschedule your appointment if needed (including situations like if anyone in your household works in a business that has reported positive cases on the job site)

Please understand, if you arrive to an appointment and you have symptoms of illness, we will ask you to reschedule, and we may suggest that you go for COVID19 testing.


What about Stage 4 Restrictions?

Theres a lot of talk going around about Stage 4 Restrictions, but Dan Andrews has not announced any plans to move to this level of restriction at this time.

If any further tightening of restrictions is announced, we will keep you informed with how that impacts your treatment plan.

To make a booking, go to our online booking page to see our current availabilities.

Unless you've been hiding under a rock, if you live in Melbourne then you'll be aware that our local new COVID19 cases have been dramatically increasing, and that in response to the rapid rise of infection numbers, Premier Dan Andrews has rolled Metro Melbourne back into Stage 3 Restrictions.

What does this mean for your treatment plan with your Myotherapist or Remedial Massage Therapist?
The good news is that Myotherapy and Remedial Massage have been given the OK by the Health Department, and getting a treatment is included in the four reasons to leave your home under the Seeking Medical Care category.

However, we're taking a cautious approach.
We are planning a short closure from Thursday 9th July to Sunday 19th July, and aim to reopen from Monday 20th July.

Why are we closing if the Health Department have not forced us to close?
In short, we want time to gather more data about these spikes in infection to inform our risk assessment.

We closed for 9 weeks when the pandemic was first announced. At that time, most infections in Melbourne were coming from international travelers and people returning home from overseas. Health experts were unsure how the numbers would play out, and we followed the advice from the Association of Massage Therapists to close our doors for safety. The strict stay at home orders during March through til June appeared to keep our infection numbers low in Victoria, and these numbers have started rising quickly in the weeks since restrictions have been eased.

The situation now feels closer to home and even more serious than back in March. The infections Melbourne is experiencing right now are a high number of community transmissions.

Our choice to close for a short time is more of an ethical choice than a legal choice. Legally, we are allowed to remain open throughout the 6 week Stage 3 rollback. However, we always want to put patient health and safety first, and after a 9 week closure earlier this year we feel it would be irresponsible to ignore the very real risks that are present now.

Our current risk assessment
Thankfully, our clinic is in a location that has very few local cases. Knox has 2 active cases as of 9/7/2020, and has had less than 30 confirmed cases total throughout the pandemic, according to the Victorian Government website.
The majority of our patients live in Knox, Yarra Ranges, Casey, Maroondah and Monash council areas. Many of you are now working from home, but some are still traveling for work or have family living in other regions.
We know that some COVID19 test results are taking up to 5 days to process, which means the daily new case figures may be reflecting the test results of up to 5 days ago.
We have also seen many of our high risk patients choosing to stay home in isolation a little longer, including people with compromised immune systems, elderly or caring for elderly, or people with pre-existing respiratory conditions.

We currently expect that our risk level is relatively low due to our location, screening procedures, sanitisation and cleaning procedures.

However, we acknowledge that it would only take one infected person to potentially risk others.

What do we expect to learn by closing temporarily?
In the safety of closing for this short period, we expect to gain more insight on infection numbers close by to our clinic, and in Metro Melbourne as a whole.
We do expect numbers will continue to rise because of the delays between testing and results. We hope by taking an extra 10 days to wait on the numbers we will get a better understanding of the situation so we can modify our COVID19 Plan if we need to.
We hope to see the Knox and surrounding areas new case figures to stay low and stable.

Will we definitely reopen on Monday July 20th?
At this stage, that is our goal date. If our risk assessment findings start to indicate a higher level of risk, we will potentially extend the closure for safety of patients, our practitioners, and the doctor and staff of Together Medical Family Practice who we share facilities with.

What will happen when we reopen?
We'll continue to use our COVID19 Procedures that we created to maintain a clean and hygienic treatment environment. This includes continuing screening every person at every appointment they attend, and the longer periods between each appointment for ventilation and thorough sanitisation.
Our practitioners will be wearing masks, we'll be smiling underneath even though you can't see it!
The Together Medical Family Practice has also arranged a hygiene station at the front door for anyone who enters to use hand sanitiser and take a face mask.
Our waiting area has been rearranged to distance the chairs, and we are recommending that everyone waits in their car until we call you in to avoid the need to sit in the communal waiting room.

Who should you see if you urgently need an appointment while we are closed?
Our good friends at Tecoma Myotherapy are remaining open throughout the restrictions. Mat Richardson and his team are exceptionally caring and friendly therapists, offering Myotherapy and Remedial Massage. Let them know that we've asked them to take care of you while we are closed, we know you'll be in good hands.

This is a decision we have not made lightly.

We have decided to close temporarily from Monday March 23rd, as Premier Dan Andrews has introduced Stage 1 Restrictions as part of the Victorian State of Emergency to manage Covid-19.

As the multiple massage and myotherapy associations debate whether we are considered "essential" services, as a clinic here at Simple Wellness Myotherapy we have had some difficult discussions about our ethical position in regards to our response to the virus that is effecting people worldwide.

Both Emily and I considered carefully the patients we've seen since the beginning of 2020, and we made a list of high risk categories. We found that more than 75% of our patients fit one or more of these risk groups.
People who are personally at risk, including our patients with: Multiple Sclerosis who take immunosuppression medication; weakened immune systems and other autoimmune diseases; more than one chronic condition; elderly themselves or living with elderly family members; family and household members with immune diseases; pregnant.
People who are essential workers, including: nurses; Emergency Department staff; allied health practitioners; teachers; childcare workers; supermarket or distribution workers.
People with a high risk of coming in contact with infection, including: people who travel on public transport; travel interstate or internationally for work.

We had already increased our hygiene efforts between March 16, when Premier Andrews initially declared the State of Emergency, up until now. We had increased the time between appointments to allow more time to sanitise surfaces and tools, and to reduce the number of people in our waiting area. Dr Dib and the Together Medical Family Practice had also decreased their number of appointments, spaced out their waiting room chairs, and started taking phone consultations for anyone displaying any kind of respiratory symptoms.

Over this last week, we received many calls and messages from patients to cancel their appointments due to Covid-19 and the instructions from the Premier that if you can stay home, to do so.

We weighed up our options. We considered the nature of our treatments - we work hands on, on your body, usually for at least 50 minutes at a time, sometimes longer. It would only take one ill person visiting our clinic to put us and our patients at risk.

So with sadness, we made that decision to temporarily close so that we can stay at home, and encourage you to stay at home, too.

We understand that by closing for now, this may impact your treatment plan.
As best as we can, we will support you online, on the phone or through your exercise programs we've created for you using your PhysiTrack account. Any patients with current treatment plans who need support or help can email me at Mel@simplewellness.com.au

Here's hoping that the more people who stay at home means the quicker we all get back to a more normal looking life!

Need a massage and it’s only day 2 of the school holidays?
We’re open, and although we know you’d probably prefer the time to yourself, we want you to know that our clinic is kid friendly!

There are toys for the little ones, or your older kids can choose to read, or of course every kids favourite, play games or watch YouTube.
We can help you save your mobile data by connecting you to our wifi during your treatment, so the kids can keep themselves busy and you don’t have to wait til they’re back at school.

We’ll also be open throughout the AFL Grand Final weekend, including on Friday the 27th (the Grand Final eve public holiday) and on Saturday the 28th.

Time to make a booking? We’ll see you soon!

Wondering why the clinic was closed at Ferntree Gully on the weekend?
It was because I set up a pop up clinic at the Seven Sisters Festival in Mt Martha!
My wonderful friend Mel from Your Myotherapy in Apollo Bay joined me to offer myotherapy and remedial massage treatments to the ladies at the festival, and we had a blast - even in the 38-40* heat!

What is the Seven Sisters Festival? Its a 3 day weekend of workshops, classes, markets, food and connection. Think yoga classes, sound healing, singing, presentations, crafts, camping with your friends and a whole lot more!

The preparation time and effort was well worth it. We got to offer about 70 treatments over 3 days, and we were in high demand. We had info brochures available, and got to discuss myotherapy with a lot of interested ladies.

Our most frequently asked question was - what IS myotherapy? I like to explain it in simple terms, so I usually explain it in relation to other treatments that people might be more familiar with:
Its a treatment for muscle and joint pain or dysfunction that can have a lot of hands on time (like a remedial massage) and has a bunch of other tools and techniques to achieve very specific outcome goals for recovery and rehabilitation (similar to a physiotherapist)

I had a great time, but I must say I am really glad to be back to the air conditioned comfort of my own treatment room!

Did you miss me? I'm back to normal clinic hours again so you can book in to see me when you need me.

​Did you know I'm upgrading my qualification?
I'm currently studying my Bachelor of Health Science (Myotherapy) at Endeavour College of Natural Health!

The Bachelor of Health Science gives me more advanced techniques, including mobilisation, assessments, pathology and clinical sciences, pain neuroscience, foundations of human nutrition, further corrective exercise prescription, and lots more!
Any of you who know me, know I'm a total nerd about this stuff, and I'm very excited to bring new skills week by week back into my clinic.

I start on campus classes in March 2018. I'll be studying all day from 8am through til 6pm on Thursdays.

My available clinic hours from March 2018 will be:
Monday - 9am-7pm
Tuesday - 9am-7pm
Wednesday - 9am-7pm
Thursday - closed
Friday - 9am-7pm
Saturday - closed
Sunday - closed

Want to book your next appointment? I look forward to seeing you soon!

Merry Christmas!
What a year 2017 has been!!
I'm lucky enough to be taking 2 weeks off for the end of year break.

Christmas Clinic Hours
Simple Wellness Myotherapy is closed from Dec 23rd-Jan 7th.
Back to normal clinic hours from Monday 8th January 2018!

Do you need to see someone urgently? Dr Nathan Petridis, our Chiropractor at Balanced Life Health Care, will be available for chiropractic appointments all throughout the Christmas break (except for the public holidays!) Book a time with him through the Balanced Life Health Care website.
​
Have a happy and safe Christmas and New Years! See you in 2018!
​Mel x

After a long year of study, I am going on holiday!
It was my 30th birthday in February, and my awesome partner Adam turned 30 last year, and two of our best pals also hit the big 3-0 this year. So we are out of here for nearly two weeks to Cambodia!

So it's business as usual right up until 4pm on Tuesday May 23rd, then our flight departs just after midnight.
We'll be away til early June, and the clinic will reopen from Wednesday June 7th.
If you want to get in to see me before I go, get in quick and book online now!

Easter is nearly here, and I have exciting news!

I've been invited to provide treatments at a retreat this Easter!

The retreat centre is a 5 hour drive into East Gippsland, so I will be closed from Thursday April 13th, and back to normal business hours on Tuesday April 18th.

Do you want to get in before I go away? Book an appointment online now!