Physiotherapy (also often referred to as Physical Therapy) is a hugely important role within the healthcare profession that addresses the treatment of physical ailments and conditions. Whether these physical ailments have been caused from an illness, an accident or even purely via the ravages of age, physiotherapy seeks to remedy and treat this in a number of ways.
Methods of treatment include the active promotion of:
· mobility
· functional ability
· quality of life
Furthermore, via continuous examination, evaluation and diagnosis, a physiotherapist will look to maximise a patient's movement potential and carry out various physical activities.
Who are typical patients in need of physiotherapy?
With physiotherapy being very much of the view that human movement is key in terms of one's well-being and health, there is a broad spectrum of hospital patients that fall into this per say:
· outpatients
· the terminally ill
· individuals suffering with mental illness
· orthopaedics
· women's health
· intensive care
· stroke patients
· paediatrics
Physiotherapists disguised as psychiatrists...
Physical rehabilitation for patients that require treatment from a physiotherapist can often be a lengthy process with granular results over long periods. Where patients can lose faith in their treatment and the remedial effects that it is actually having, it is the job of the physiotherapist to reassure a patient and coach them through the emotional highs as well as the lows. In conjunction with this, the physiotherapist will need to actively manage their patient's expectations so that the patient is as fully aware of the rate of their recovery and the timescale of realistic expectations.
Physical Intervention and Movement Therapy
Where physical treatment can vary drastically in terms of a patient's diagnosis, hospitals and physiotherapists ensure that there are extensive facilities and equipment available in order to efficiently treat their patients.
As such, many hospitals actually house special physiotherapy gyms. Unlike the normal type of gym that many people would expect to find, these gyms include various types of high-tech pieces of equipment that are designed to treat the multitude of a physiotherapy patient's needs.
There are also some hospitals that will contain hydrotherapy pools. Research has found that for particularly severe cases, hydrotherapy and movement therapy aided via the buoyancy provided whilst being submerged in water has proven hugely effective. So much so that even with the sizable cost of housing a pool within a hospital, the effective treatment and results that hydrotherapy has for patients outweighs the problematic expense.