what-when-how
In Depth Tutorials and Information
C h a p t e r
9
Chapter contents
Managing patient
engagement in
orthoses and
footwear as a foot
health intervention
Introduction 137
Managing use issues with
specialist footwear 138
Patient education and behaviour
change 138
Resources for the practitioner
and patient 139
General footwear advice 140
Summary 141
Review questions 142
Reflection 142
References 142
Further reading 142
Introduction
It is important for the practitioner to understand
retail trends, and sources of suitable footwear.
Having leaflets of different footwear brands
may be useful in educating and informing
patients about sources of good footwear but
the most important factor in getting patients to
change their footwear-wearing behaviour is for
the practitioner to understand that it may take
some time. It is known that just because
someone has knowledge, this does not neces-
sarily influence their behaviour. Having the
knowledge may be the start of a process for
patients to think about change, action change
and then maintain the change (
Prochaska and
DiClemente 1984
,
1982
).
In situations where patients' shoes contrib-
ute to symptoms but there is no apparent
conscious acceptance of this, then the practi-
tioner may have to accept that this is the
patients' personal decision. Under these
circumstances, negotiated care or compro-
mise is required.
