Physiotherapy in remote communities

In my rural placement in Geraldton, once a week I go to a remote community with my supervisor. The town is about 1hour and 15 min away from Geraldton. I heard the town used to be a mining spot, however since the mine closed down, most caucasians have moved to Geraldton. Therefore, most of the residents there are aboriginals and staff from the local school and the community health centre.
During my half day there, I do an exercises class with the elderly and then physiotherapy for outpatients. On my first day there, I had total of 3 patients, and two of them are aboriginal descent. As we were driving back to Geraldton, my supervisor told me that I was very lucky to have two aboriginal patients in one day. He expressed that there are few aboriginal patients who come for physiotherapy treatment. Although the whole idea of driving to this town is to provide free physiotherapy treatment for the whole community which is mostly made up of aboriginals, many of them are not aware of the service available. In other cases, the limitation seemed normal to them to just endure it. For this reason, most of patients who come for outpatient appointment are either teachers from the school or the staff from the community health centre. When he just started, he had very little patients, some days having only 1-2 patients. Up to this point, due to limited staff from the health centre and community he is keeping some patients who could have been discharged with HEP if the clinic’s busier.
Reflecting on what he said, I realized that my second aboriginal patient was referred by doctor to see a physiotherapist. After her treatment, her sister who accompanied actually asked if she can have an appointment too for her own injury. As a rural community, many of aboriginals have more injuries from the outdoor lifestyle as well as the occasional violence.
This service aimed to deliver health service to the local aboriginals. It seems somewhat missing the point when majority of the patients who don’t necessarily need physiotherapy. There is probably nothing I can do about this situation. If there is an appropriate campaign to increase awareness of free health services in the rural aboriginals, It would greatly benefit the locals to promote physiotherapy.