Who Is Your Physical Therapist?

Since I have attended three different colleges while being a student my little family has had the opportunity to move to different cities quite a few times. From these moves I have learned that among all the things I hate about moving, one of my least favorite things is trying to find a new dentist or, for my wife, a new cosmotologist. When you have your dentist or your physician for a good amount of time there is a certain comfort and trust that you build with them that takes time to replace. For my wife, it's hard to replace her hair stylist because the person who she has been going to knows exactly what my wife wants and how to do it. When it comes to health care most people are able to tell you instantly who their physician, dentist, or optometrist is however, if you ask them who their physical therapist is most people will have no idea. Why does this happen? One reason is that if you want to go see a dentist or physician you can just go without a referral from another health care professional. This is not always the case for people that want to see a physical therapist. Based on the state or insurance company you have some people have to get a referral from a physician before they go see a physical therapist. Along with that is most insurance companies cover things like dental visits, vision, and physician appointments, but physical therapy visits are very limited for most insurance plans. Those two factors combined make people less likely to see a physical therapist as frequently for their movement impairments as they would go see an optometrist for their vision. Less frequent visits means people will not feel that attachment or need to have a person be their physical therapist because they only saw them for a one time problem.

 Another important thing to consider is the wording people use when they need to see a physical therapist. Most people are told that they should try physical therapy or go to physical therapy. You never hear people say things like "you should go try some dentistry for your aching tooth" or "you need to get some optometry done for your bad vision." Both of those sound silly but for some reason it sounds fine to say that a person should recieve physical therapy for their hurt ankle. It seems small, but there is a big difference between that and saying "I am going to see a physical therapist for my hurt ankle." It's not just the physical therapy that treats you, the physical therapist matters as well. Once we realize that we start to build more of a relationship with the physical therapist. When that occurs and people can say that person is my physical therapist people will utilize them for more. Rather than just going to the ER for a sprained ankle people are more likely to directly make an appointment with their physical therapist. This is beneficial for patients as well because your physical therapist will already know your health history, your previous treatments, and your personal preferences which means less time explaining that each time you have to go in for treatment and a better overall experiene for the individual. When a person has their physical therapist they will have another medical professional on their side that they can turn to. Physical Therapists can then be utilized more to their potential of treatment and prevention of problems because people will use them more as their own therapist. People have their dentist, physician, and even hair stylist...isn't it about time everybody has their Physical Therapist?