When someone is experiencing chronic pain, their doctor may recommend physical therapy services for them to try. But how does this type of therapy help to relieve pain? Physical therapists help your elderly family member to get stronger over time, which can do more than you might think to help the pain fade. Even if the health issue she’s facing is progressive, she may still get some pain relief from working with a physical therapist.
Understand the Goals of Physical Therapy
It’s helpful to know what this type of therapy is all about, especially when you’re considering this method for managing pain and other symptoms for your senior. The biggest goal of this type of therapy is to get to the root cause, if possible, of what’s causing pain and discomfort. That means if your elderly family member is dealing with arthritis, looking for solutions that help support the joint in question is at the top of the list. Or if your elderly family member has back pain because of weak core muscles, the focus becomes strengthening those muscles.
Physical Therapists Use a Variety of Tools
Physical therapists use a wide range of different tools to help their patients manage pain and other discomforts. They might utilize cold and heat therapy, massage, stretching, strengthening exercises, and balance exercises. There are lots of other options they might choose, too, depending on your elderly family member’s unique situation and needs. Whatever combination of treatments they arrive at is one that is tailored to your senior’s needs.
Exercise Is a Big Component
Your senior should expect that exercise is going to be a big component of her physical therapy treatment plan. She may learn to use weights, resistance bands, or her own body weight as part of her therapy, for example. Or she might try new activities like yoga or water aerobics to help her body to become stronger and more flexible. The exercises that her physical therapist recommends for her are going to be ones that target the specific needs related to the pain she’s experiencing.
Physical Therapy Aides Also Work to Avoid Reinjury
Another vital aspect of this type of therapy is that your senior’s physical therapist wants to help her to avoid reinjury whenever possible. That means that the therapies and treatments suggested are going to be geared toward helping her to be safer and avoid the problems she had before. Much of physical therapy relies on tools like fall prevention, for instance. That’s especially important if your elderly family member has either fallen in the past or experienced a near miss with falling. And if her pain is related to a fall, it’s even more vital that your senior doesn’t experience another fall.
Physical therapy is often used in combination with other treatments to deal with pain. Your senior’s medical providers all work together to find the right solutions for her needs and to help ensure that she is able to get back as much range of motion and pain relief as possible.
If you or a loved one are considering Physical Therapy Services in Pittsburgh PA, please call and talk to the caring staff at Extended Family Care of Pittsburgh at (412) 693-6009. We will answer all of your questions.
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