Patient FAQs

What is physical therapy?

Physical therapy is a type of treatment prescribed when injury or illness makes daily tasks difficult or painful. Your physician may suggest physical therapy for a range of issues, including back pain, tendon or ligament problems, arthritis, and a range of illnesses and injuries. For more information about physical therapy, click here.

What is a physical therapist?

A physical therapist (PT) is a health professional trained to evaluate physical problems and injuries. S/he also provides education and treatment to promote health and physical function. Often, a PT will develop a customized exercise and stretching program to increase fitness and prevent injury. For more information about physical therapists, click here.

Where can I find general information about Physical Therapy?

Therapy Center recommends WedMD, a free online resource for information about health. To find more information about Physical Therapy on WebMD, click here.

What should I expect at a physical therapy visit?

Your first physical therapy visit will likely consist of a review of your medical history and a physical evaluation. Your therapist might evaluate your flexibility, strength, balance, posture and body mechanics. S/he will also work with you to determine your goals for physical therapy – the first goal of treatment being a reduction in pain and swelling. Follow up visits will use targeted stretching, exercise, and other techniques to increase your flexibility, strength, and endurance. For more information about what to expect at a physical therapy visit, click here.

What types of injuries/illnesses can physical therapy help treat?

Physical therapy can help you recover from physical injury by reducing muscle, tendon, and ligament pain as well as improving flexibility and building strength. Examples of injuries physical therapy is used to treat include: back pain, meniscus tear, and plantar fasciitis, among others.

Physical therapy also helps patients live with chronic health conditions by establishing health goals and creating a program of educational and physical activities to meet them. Physical therapy can help patients deal with physical symptoms of rheumatoid arthritis, Parkinson’s disease, multiple sclerosis, and vertigo, among other illnesses.

For more information about what types of injuries/illnesses physical therapy can help treat, please click here.

How can physical therapy help with total knee replacement recovery?

Physical therapy is an important part of total knee replacement surgery, helping you regain mobility in your knee, strengthen leg muscles, and get you back to daily activities like walking, climbing stairs, and getting up and down. Physical therapy rehabilitation can continue for several weeks to several months, depending on the individual. For more information about total knee replacement surgery, click here.

How can physical therapy help with total hip replacement recovery?

Many patients begin physical therapy immediately after a total hip replacement so as to prevent contractures, strengthen muscles around the hip joint, and improve patient education about recovery and injury prevention. As recovery progresses, rehabilitation incorporates increased movement, always monitoring pain and discomfort, eventually progressing to stepping, walking, and climbing. Physical therapy is an extremely important aspect of recovery, and can be very gratifying for the patient as their condition improves over time. For more information about total hip replacement, click here.

How can physical therapy help with stroke recovery?

Often, stroke survivors must change, relearn, or redefine basic activities in order to return to independent living. While physical therapy cannot reverse the effects of a stroke, it is an important aspect of stroke recovery, helping patients regain mobility and rebuild strength and confidence. Rehabilitation programs will generally include physical therapy along with occupational therapy, speech-language therapy, nutritional care, counseling, and other therapies depending on the specific needs of the patient. For more information about stroke recovery, click here.

What kinds of Physical Therapy are available?

There are many types of Physical Therapy available. Your therapist can help you determine which combination of treatments best suits your particular injury or illness. Your treatment may change over time, but will likely include a combination of: exercise, manual therapy, education, ice/cold, heat, hydrotherapy, ultrasound, electrical stimulation, and other specialized treatments. For a complete list of Physical Therapy types and descriptions of each, please click here.

What is Occupational Therapy?

Occupational Therapy helps people of all ages overcome illness, injury, developmental delays or psychological problems in order to live independent, productive, and satisfying lives. Through work, self-care, and recreational activities, Occupational Therapists help patients increase independent function and get back to daily activities. For more information about Occupational Therapy, click here.

What is an Occupational Therapist?

An Occupational Therapist (OT) is a health professional trained to help patients recover from illness, injury, development delays, or psychological problems. An OT will develop a customized program to help their patient regain, develop, and build skills that lead to independent functioning, health, and well-being. For more information about Occupational Therapists,click here.

What is Speech Language Therapy?

Speech Language Therapy is treatment for speech and/or language disorders, which may include difficulties pronouncing sounds, stuttering, aphasia, apraxia, dysarthria and other speech and language-related symptoms. For more information about Speech Language Therapy, click here.

What types of medical conditions can Speech Language Therapy be used to help treat?

Speech Language Therapy can be used to treat a variety of illnesses, injuries, and medical conditions, including:Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS), Dementia, Huntington’s Disease, Laryngeal Cancer, Oral Cancer, Right Hemisphere Brain Injury, Stroke, and Traumatic Brain Injury.

Do you have any communication tips for those with speech/language/hearing difficulties?

Communicating with friends and loved ones who have speech/language and hearing difficulties requires patience and extra time and effort, but can have an enormous impact on their health and well-being and is an important part of rehabilitation. Some tips for easing communication with the hearing/speech impaired include:
reduce background noises, focus on casual topics and familiar subjects, avoid quick shifts in conversation, keep sentences short, encourage reminiscing and try not to hurry responses to questions, limit choices to ease decision making, and be an active listener. For more information, and a complete list of tips, click here.