Healing Movement Dysfunction Through Exercise and Education
This October, we celebrate the 30th National Physical Therapy Month and the centennial of the American Physical Therapy Association (APTA). For many, the words physical therapy may conjure images of patients working hard in an outpatient clinic to recover from an accident, injury or surgery. Physical therapy is that, and much more. As experts in movement dysfunction, physical therapists (PTs) and physical therapist assistants (PTAs) work with individuals to maximize their level of function in settings such as hospitals, rehabilitation centers, schools, skilled nursing facilities and outpatient clinics, to name a few. Therapists work with those who have sustained injuries and those with congenital or acquired conditions that limit their ability to participate in their desired activities. Whether a person’s goal is to return to the football field after a knee injury, sit upright as a baby, or even reduce incontinence episodes, the underlying problem is often a movement dysfunction. It can be too much movement or not enough, which may benefit from physical therapy interventions to address the specific cause.
The roots of physical therapy predate the APTA by a few years with reconstruction aides who helped soldiers recover from severe injuries sustained in World War I. Over the past 100-plus years, the profession has grown tremendously. From reconstruction aides to certificate level education, and now all the way to the doctorate level of education for all physical therapy programs in the country, the education needed to enter the field has been under constant evolution. The role of physical therapy has constantly been expanding as the health-care system became more complex. Beyond the changes to the academic requirements and increased educational levels, the past few decades in the field of physical therapy have been focused on gaining autonomy for the profession and promoting patients’ rights to seek care from a physical therapist without requiring a referral. As the profession has matured, there has been a shift away from centering the profession’s needs to prioritizing the needs of the individual seeking physical therapy services, as it should be. This belief is made apparent by the current vision statement of the APTA, “transforming society by optimizing movement to improve the human experience.”
We are fortunate to have access to exceptional PTs and PTAs in the Shreveport-Bossier City community, many of whom trained locally at LSU Health Shreveport School of Allied Health Professions in Physical Therapy or the Bossier Parish Community College Physical Therapist Assistant Program. A relatively new trend in the profession is a movement toward specialization in a particular area of physical therapy. Patients and clients can be confident that, as graduates of rigorous academic programs and having passed a national licensure examination, their PT or PTA is a well-prepared expert in movement dysfunction. Advanced specialization only provides further assurance that the health-care professional has devoted additional time and effort to develop an advanced level of knowledge used to assist patients/clients in maximizing their functional abilities. For PTs, this takes the form of board certification in one of 10 specialty areas, and for PTAs, there are eight advanced proficiency pathways. Additionally, LSU Health Shreveport is home to the only physical therapy residency programs in the state of Louisiana. Residency graduates in neurologic and orthopedic physical therapy and wound management have gone on to provide the highest quality of care to residents in our region and beyond.
For more information about the educational experience and career opportunities as a physical therapist, go to www.apta.org; and for details on PT programs offered by LSUHS School of Allied Health Professions, visit www.lsuhs.edu/pt.
Ed Mahoney, PT, DPT, CWS, is the physical therapy program director at the School of Allied Health Professions LSU Health Shreveport.
