Introduction |
| What
is Physical Therapy? |
|
Physical therapy is a
dynamic profession with widespread clinical applications in the preservation, development,
and restoration of optimal physical function. Physical therapists help millions of people
each day to:
- Alleviate pain.
- Prevent the onset and progression of impairment, functional limitation,
disability, or changes in physical function and health status resulting from injury,
disease, or other causes.
- Restore, maintain, and promote overall fitness, health, and optimal quality of
life.
As essential participants in the health care delivery system, physical therapist
assume leadership roles in rehabilitation services, prevention and health maintenance
programs. They also play important roles in developing health care policy and appropriate
standards for the various elements of physical therapist practice to ensure availability,
accessibility, and excellence in the delivery of physical therapy services. The positive
impact of physical therapist’ rehabilitation, prevention, and health promotion
services on health-related quality of life is well accepted. Almost all federal, state,
and private insurance plans cover physical therapy.
Physical therapists engage in an examination process that includes taking the
history, conducting a systems review, and administering tests and measures to identify
potential and existing problems. To establish diagnoses and prognoses, physical therapists
perform evaluations that synthesize the examination data. Physical therapists provide
interventions (the interactions and procedures used in treating and instructing
patients/clients), conduct reexaminations, modify interventions as necessary to achieve
anticipated goals and desired outcomes, and develop and implement discharge plans.
Physical therapy includes not only the service provided by physical therapist but those
rendered under physical therapist direction and supervision.
The American Physical Therapy Association (APTA), the national organization
representing the profession of physical therapy, believes it is critically important for
those outside the profession to understand the role of physical therapists in the health
care delivery system and the unique services that physical therapists provide. APTA is
committed to informing consumers, other health care professionals, federal and state
governments, and third-party payers about the benefits of physical therapy-and, more
specifically, about the relationship between postintervention health status and the
services provided by a physical therapist. APTA actively supports outcomes research and
strongly endorses all efforts to develop appropriate systems to measure the results of the
patient/client management that is provided by physical therapists. |
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