Ten Minutes With... Fiona Belton

Find Fiona Belton: Linkedin

Rhea Mercado chats with Fiona Belton, an accredited exercise physiologist in Adelaide with 37 years in the industry who moved from clinical work into management for about 20 years and later pivoted back to clinical practice. Fiona is now running her own business focused on work injury, income protection, and life insurance.

Fiona and Rhea recount meeting in person after their rejected ESSA Conference workshop submission and went on to run the workshop supported by Return to Work SA. Fiona describes starting her career working for physiotherapists in the work injury space and seeing exercise physiology scope evolve over decades. Both argue exercise physiology are often introduced too late on claims and should be early intervention for physical and psychological injuries, emphasizing EPs’ role beyond exercise prescription in behaviour change, routines, sleep, energy, and trauma-informed care. They close by suggesting a future episode to dive into treatment programs.

00:00 Friday Banter Intro

00:18 Meet Fiona

01:33 Rejected Conference Rebellion

03:04 Early Career Origins

05:44 Landing in Work Injury

07:03 Exercise Physiology in Workers Comp

08:42 Mic Drop Scope Beyond Exercise

10:42 Behaviour Change and Human Complexity

11:45 Wrap Up and Round Two

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