What does a physical therapist do?

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The primary responsibilities of a physical therapist are to provide relief and rehabilitation to patients with injuries or disabilities as well as teach patients ways to prevent injuries from occurring.

Relief & rehabilitation

When a patient becomes injured or has a disability, they will need support from a physical therapist to aid in their recovery. A physical therapist will work with their patient to create a specialized recovery plan that will give the patient relief from their injury as well as rehabilitate their injury. This plan could include various forms of exercises, as well as different types of techniques that may aid in the rehabilitation process including hydrotherapy or massage therapy. Depending on the extent of the injury or disability, the time spend with one patient varies between a few weeks to a few months or possibly even years.

Injury prevention

Physical therapists also work with patients to educated them about how to further care for their injury and prevent future injuries from occurring. They will explain the cause of how the patient received the injury and include information such as how the muscles or tissue have been affected by the injury. They will work with the patient to provide them with the tools, resources and knowledge to avoid common injuries from happening in the future.

There’s a lot of info in the physical therapy space. This article was written by John David who is very active in Physical Therapy. He owns a mobility medical supplies company that sells products such as thera bands and biofreeze pain relieving gel.