A new medical pedicure service in town, Happy Feet Foot Care, is bridging the gap in diabetic and medical foot care.
Tammy Brown-Idrissou, owner and manager, said this service had been lacking in the district, especially with an ageing population. She’s hoping her service will ease the lengthy waitlists at specialized diabetes clinics, and offer services not available at regular salons, such as ingrown nail care. Most salons are not trained in medical foot care, or prefer not to serve diabetics because of the risk of nicks, Brown-Idrissou said. Her clinic is fully qualified, and accepts anyone in need of medical foot care.
“With foot care, there are a lot of people now, besides diabetics, who have had hip and knee replacements or just have bad vision, or arthritis, where they can’t do their own feet. I reduce the nails, clip and file them and thinning the nails. I do the calluses, corns, warts and fissures on their feet,” Brown-Idrissou said.
Brown-Idrissou has previous experience doing foot care work on a part-time basis at the Health Access Centre. She has been a registered practical nurse since 2013 and in 2016, she took the foot care course. She had been predominantly working in mental health and addictions at the Ontario Addictions Treatment Centres and at the Fort Frances jail.
“I enjoyed it quite a lot so I decided to open my own practice because there were a lot of people who couldn’t access services, except through the clinic, which was really backed up,” she said.
A dry medical pedicure takes 45 to 60 minutes, and the set charge is $75. Brown-Idrissou said the price is adjusted to every person’s needs, adding that some receipts could be submitted to insurance companies that cover this treatment.
When clients call to make an appointment, Brown-Idrissou said she finds out what it is that they are looking for, including whether they are diabetic.
“If there’s a special concern, maybe a really bad ingrown or something, I’ll ask them to send me a picture and that way I can kind of judge from it the amount of time we’ll need for an appointment,” she said. “But I try to do everything for them when they come for their appointment.”
Prior to the appointment, if the client is not diabetic, she will ask them to soak their feet in epsom salt because it helps make the skin and the nail softer and easier to manipulate.
Brown-Idrissou currently has room for 200 patients, on a regular rotation. Although many patients will need her on a one-time basis, others will need routine maintenance, because they can’t see or reach their feet or they can’t feel their feet due to diabetes.
Happy Feet Footcare opened its doors on Feb. 14. This is Brown-Idrissou’s full-time job now, with plans to take on an employee in the near future, to allow her to expand.
“I think there’s not very many providers in the district,” she said. “With an ageing population, it is becoming more of a need. I noticed even in youth and teenagers a lot of ingrown toenails from sports, kicking balls in soccer. That causes a lot of ingrowns. There’s a lot of people that are all ages now that are requiring some help with foot care.”
Happy Feet Foot Care is located at 339 Scott St in Fort Frances. Find them on Facebook. New clients are being accepted.
