Rehabilitation Medicine
Rehabilitation medicine is a person-centred medical specialty focused on assisting people to achieve their goals. It has the advantage of being a team based specialty that utilises the knowledge and skills of allied health practitioners with additional expertise to achieve better health and functional outcomes.
Rehabilitation medicine focuses on the whole person including their psychological and social well-being, not just their affected body part. The Australian Faculty of Rehabilitation Medicine (AFRM) is the peak professional organisation for Rehabilitation Medicine education and training in Australia and New Zealand. It is a Faculty of the Royal Australian College of Physicians (RACP).
Dr Nathan Johns
Dr Nathan Johns is a specialist Rehabilitation Medicine Physician with over 20 years of expertise in managing adults with pain and disability. He graduated from Monash University with a Bachelor of Medicine and Surgery in 1996. He is a Fellow of the Australasian Faculty of Rehabilitation Medicine (AFRM, RACP). He has speciality training and experience in all aspects of rehabilitation including pain management, neurological rehabilitation, orthopaedic rehabilitation, traumatic brain injury and the rehabilitation of older adults. Dr Johns is the Clinical Director of Rehabilitation Medicine, Aged Care, Palliative Care and Pain at Peninsula Health in Frankston. His research interests include persistent post-surgical pain and he is a final year PhD candidate at Monash University. He is an adjunct lecturer at Monash University. Dr Johns consults on Tuesday and Thursday afternoons.
Pain rehabilitation
Dr Johns sub-specialises in pain that persists after surgery and has published research investigating pain after knee replacement. He has developed an online pain rehabilitation program called Kneed for people with persistent pain after knee replacement. Together with a multidisciplinary team at Brighton Spine and Sports, he treats people with pain that persists after knee, hip, shoulder and spinal surgery. The team takes a biopsychosocial approach and focuses on helping you to understand why your pain persists after surgery and then provides you with a personalised rehabilitation program of targeted exercises and strategies to reduce your pain, improve your function and return to you to your enjoyable activities.
Dr Johns has vast experience in treating people injured at work or in motor vehicle accidents with no out of pocket expenses for approved WorkSafe and TAC clients. This includes the management of soft tissue injuries that result in neck, back and joint pain and recovery after surgery with expertise in helping people return to enjoyable activities and work.
General Rehabilitation
Dr Johns also provides pain and rehabilitation treatment for people after stroke, with Parkinson’s disease, following falls and fractures, following spinal cord injury, following traumatic brain injury and following treatment for cancer. Treatment focuses on your goals which may include reducing pain, reducing fatigue, improving function, returning to work, returning to exercise and sports and returning to activities such as gardening and social events.
Rehabilitation for older adults
Dr Johns has a special interest in the rehabilitation of older adults helping them to manage conditions such as osteoarthritis, joint pain, neck and back pain, spinal canal stenosis, falling and balance problems. He provides rehabilitation programs for deconditioning after hospitalisation, illness or surgery. He has expertise in prescribing exercise in the setting of complex problems to help improve fitness, strength and balance and expertise in prescribing or rationalising medication for pain when there are multiple medications or chronic conditions complicating management.
