In this blog post, we are going to discuss rehabilitation and rehabilitative therapy.

What Are Rehabilitative Services?

Rehabilitative services are defined on the healthcare.gov website.  “Rehabilitative services are those health care services that help you keep, get back or improve skills and functioning for daily living that have been lost or impaired because you were sick, hurt or disabled. Furthermore, these services may include physical and occupational therapy, speech and language pathology therapy, and psychiatric rehab services in a variety of inpatient and/or outpatient settings.” [1]

About Physical Therapy and Occupational Therapy

In today’s article, we will deal primarily with physical therapy and occupational therapy.

A therapy or mode of therapy by way of techniques or modalities used to preserve or improve functioning can be described as physical therapy. On the other hand, occupational therapy is different. “Occupational therapy intervention uses everyday life activities (occupations) to promote health, well-being, and your ability to participate in the important activities in your life.” [2]

Now that we know what the definitions are of these two very commonly utilized services, let’s find out the differences between the two. Both are helpful for recovery.

Physical therapy uses exercises, modalities and other physical interventions to strengthen, re-train, and re-educate a specific area of the body to be able to perform functional activities or perform them with more independence and/or less/no pain.

In contrast, occupational therapy helps people improve daily tasks and routine activities to improve their ability to live as independently and self-sufficiently as possible.

Improving Your Chance of Success with Rehab

So, if you are in a situation where you need to seek physical therapy services, there are certain things you should be familiar with to improve your chances of success with the rehab process.

First, you need to have clear goals in mind in terms of what you want to gain out of the physical therapy protocol. Some clients come to us and say, I want to reduce the pain I have been having in my back for the last 2 weeks.

This is a very good example of a clear expectation that you can have when seeking services. In addition, this tells you and your therapist what you are trying to achieve as a team. This gives your therapist an idea of how to formulate the evaluation process to identify what the potential issues may be that may be causing the pain in the first place. Once that is found, the therapist can come up with a treatment regimen to alleviate that symptom that has been bothering you.

Be a Part of the Care Process

Second, you need to be a part of the plan of care process. In other words, you need to be a part of the protocol design process that will be used to treat your ailment. The reason is you know your body best and feel what works and doesn’t work for you.

You will also be the first person to know when something may be going wrong with your body. Also, it is very important to be well informed about your treatment protocol and plan of care so there are no surprises of any kind and you know exactly what to expect every time you go for a session.

Be Sure to Ask Questions

Third, you need to be curious about the treatment protocol and how it affects your body mechanics. This will help you understand how to best do the exercises so you are doing it correctly and getting the most benefit out of it without doing any harm to yourself.

Most therapists are very appreciative when clients ask them questions about the ‘why’ and ‘how’ of exercises as it gives them a chance to explain the mechanism of why the exercises are important and should be done in a certain way.

Be More Involved in Your Care

By following simple rules like those we discussed, one can be more involved in their own care. And at the same time learn what to do and more importantly, what not to do to achieve their goals.

Questions like, “Why did I get this pain in this particular spot?” or “How can I prevent injuring the same area again?” can go a long way. This will give you a good understanding of the inner workings of your body and how to be careful in the future to minimize the risk of injuries. Another important question that everyone should ask their therapist unless already discussed prior, is the protocol for a Home Exercise Program.

Most therapists like their clients to maintain some type of exercise routine on the days that they won’t be coming to the clinic. This ensures that the progress that a client has made during a PT session can be harnessed and improved on.  So, in future sessions, the therapist can progress the treatment to the next level rather than starting from scratch again.

Physical Therapy is a Team Effort

Going through physical therapy is a team effort between you and your therapist. The more involvement there is from the entire team, the better the outcomes tend to be.

Hope you enjoyed reading this article on Rehabilitative Therapy. In a future post, we will explore the topic of “Building better bone health.”  Feel free to reach me at dbhatt@namasterehab.com  with questions/suggestions about this post.

 

Contributed by: Darshan Bhatt, DPT

Darshan Bhatt is a physical therapist by training. He has worked in various healthcare settings around the country. He is the Founder and currently serves as President of Namaste Rehab. Namaste Rehab is a company that provides therapy services to seniors at their place of residence. Namaste Rehab’s motto is, “Why go to the clinic if the clinic can come to you!”

Darshan was born and raised in India. He moved to the United States for Graduate Schooling. He got his Master’s Degree from University of Buffalo. And then got his Doctor of Physical Therapy Degree from Utica University. He has lived and worked in the Greater Philadelphia area for the past 12+ years.

After seeing the dire need for rehab services for seniors who could not access care during the COVID pandemic, Darshan decided to start his company. He decided to cater to clients who could not access care or would rather choose to receive services at home for convenience, safety or other reasons.

 

RESOURCES

[1]	“Healthcare.gov,” [Online]. Available: https://www.healthcare.gov/glossary/rehabilitative-rehabilitation-services/.
[2]	A. O. T. Association, “What is Occupational Therapy?,” [Online]. Available: https://www.aota.org/about/what-is-ot.

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