Research Assessment #1
Physical Therapy: Who Can Benefit and How Can It Help?
After suffering a devastating ACL tear in June of 2019, I have been through all different sorts of physical therapy in order to return to my former status of a healthy athlete. The physical therapy process, although extremely grueling and difficult, was remarkably effective. In fact, I would say that I came back even stronger of an athlete than I was before my injury. This got me wondering - how on earth was that possible? The more I thought about it, the more questions I had about the practice, so when I was offered the opportunity to explore and research physical therapy in ISM, I jumped at the chance. There’s so much I want to learn about and experience firsthand, but I’ve begun my research by asking just a few, broad questions: What is physical therapy? What are the different branches? And, most importantly, how does physical therapy help different people? Reading Lori Smith’s article “Physical Therapy: Who Can Benefit and How Can It Help?” gave me a wonderful insight into the answers of these questions and a jump start to my research.
First and foremost, the title “physical therapist” can mean many different things. Reading this article highlighted just how many different types of physical therapy they are and how many different conditions and treatments can be found within these types. There are multiple different areas physical therapists can study and specialize in. It is truly fascinating to me how the term physical therapy can mean anything from orthopedic physical therapy to neurological physical therapy to ultrasounds. That’s right - ultrasounds. The realm of this practice is so great it includes therapy involving physical manipulation and therapy without physical manipulation, which opens up even more windows of opportunity and options of practice. This answered my question regarding what exactly physical therapy is and the different types there are, which, as I have just recently discovered, is quite a lot. Along with this, physical therapists can work in almost any and all healthcare settings. I had known that physical therapy was a broad topic, but my eyes are now open to just how broad it really is. Physical therapists are truly a jack of all trades. This both intrigues and excites me because it means I have a variety of options in both what I want to study in college and what kind of physical therapist I want to become. The freedom of choice within the practice is yet another factor that is drawing me towards the profession.
My biggest question I had when beginning my research was: How does physical therapy actually benefit people? Just like the different types of physical therapy, the different benefits it can have on different people is extremely varied. I went through a very common orthopedic form of physical therapy after my ACL tear and reconstruction surgery, where my therapist helped me to maximize my performance strength, improve my mobility and movement, and helped me to recover from my injury. But sometimes people will take a different route by skipping the surgery and using orthopedic physical therapy to avoid it, as well help with pain and reduce the need for pain medicine which is a longer route to recovery, but no less effective. I have an uncle who was in a motorcycle accident and had to do neurological physical therapy, which helped him to increase his limb responsiveness as well as improve his balance after the crash. Another example of how physical therapy can benefit someone is through geriatric physical therapy, where older people suffering from conditions that can range from arthritis to Alzheimer’s disease can get help with restoring some of their mobility, reducing their pain and increasing their fitness levels.
To summarize - there’s no downsides to physical therapy. It doesn’t matter if you’re old and creaky or young and healthy. If you’re feeling pain, there’s a type of physical therapy that can help you. And in the current world of physical therapy, things are only improving and moving upwards. New technologies and treatments are being developed every day in order to combat new injuries, diseases, and any other problems we may have. So the answer to the question “How does physical therapy help people?” is simply this - physical therapy can help anyone in any way, no matter the situation or problem. While gaining further insight to these broad questions about physical therapy, I’ve learned that physical therapy is good for a person in more ways than one: physically, psychologically, and emotionally. The challenges I face now - finding a mentor and delving deeper into my research - are sure to be difficult, yet I am nothing but excited and anxious to begin my journey with physical therapy during ISM. I am increasingly eager to gain some hands-on experience in the complex and diverse world of physical therapy.
