Polio Australia has developed a survey to help us understand how polio survivors interact with their doctors, and what we can do to improve any problems reported.

Click here to complete the survey

BACKGROUND
We have educated many physios, OTs and other allied health professionals through our Clinical Practice Workshops. However, it has been difficult to reach medical doctors. We know that a doctor’s work can be difficult, and it is hard for them to find time to come to workshops. We also know that it’s very important for them to know how to help people who once had polio.

In this survey, Medical Professional means doctors, such as GPs, surgeons, anesthetists, psychiatrists, radiologists, gynecologists, or other specialists.

Some questions ask about your experience with other health professionals. This helps us to compare doctors and other health workers.

It also will help us to know about things that you have found difficult when talking to your doctors. Please think about examples from the last 5 years (since 2015).

OTHER DETAILS
The survey will be available online for about a month, but please do it now if possible. It takes about 10 minutes to complete. Please be as honest as you can.

If you choose to do this survey, you are giving your permission for us to use the information you submit. We do not ask who you are, but ask general questions about your age and where you live. This survey was sent by email, but it does NOT use or need your email address. We will not share or isolate your details – we are looking at everyone’s details and answers as a group. The group information will help us to make decisions about the best ways to help people who have had polio and their doctors work together.

If a polio survivor you know is not on our contact list, or is NOT living in Australia, they may also complete the survey. Please let them know about the survey.

If you have any questions about the survey, please email [email protected]. You can contact us before or after you do the survey. You can also contact us if you want to tell us more of your story.

SURVEY CONTENT
There are 11 questions asking about you and your polio history. This is followed by 10 questions about your experiences with doctors. Then there are 8 questions about your biggest health or activity problems related to polio.

For all 29 questions, just choose an answer from the options. If you’re not sure, choose the answer that best matches your experience.

At the end of the survey you can add in any other problems in the three text boxes if you wish.

In our testing it took less than 10 minutes to finish the 29 questions, but we did not record the time to complete the last optional text answers.

Click here to complete the survey