When people hear physical therapy, what often comes to mind is treatment after an injury or other serious condition. While that is certainly true, physical therapy’s benefits extend beyond that into helping people of all ages by improving strength, balance, fitness, and overall mobility. Those core benefits are extremely helpful for older adults as muscle strength and mobility tend to decline over time as a natural part of aging. For these reasons, your aging loved one may benefit from regular physical therapy. To find out more, we’ve outlined some fundamental information below.
What is Physical Therapy?
Physical therapy focuses on personalized ways to develop, maintain, and restore people’s maximum movement and functional ability. It can help people at any stage of life, when movement and function are threatened by aging, injuries, diseases, disorders, conditions, or environmental factors. By utilizing physical therapy, you can improve your quality of life, looking at physical, psychological, emotional and social well-being. Physical therapy incorporates health topics such as promotion, prevention, treatment, intervention and rehabilitation.
How Physical Therapy Can Benefit Older Adults
Physical therapy is often used for the following conditions:
- Recovering from injuries such as a broken hip
- Osteoarthritis
- Pain in all parts of the body such as knee, back, shoulder, wrist, etc.
- Diabetes
- Parkinson’s Disease
- Alzheimer’s Disease
- Stroke
- Vertigo
- Incontinence
- Multiple Sclerosis
- Cerebral Palsy
- And many other conditions
Older adults are often met with a variety of chronic conditions and many struggle with limited mobility. As described earlier, physical therapy can greatly improve mobility, strength, and motion. For example, having greater balance and flexibility can help to prevent a painful fall which approximately 33% of those age 65+ experience annually. In addition, physical therapy can also help people recover from, or cope with, a life changing and potentially debilitating condition such as a stroke or diabetes.
Common Physical Therapy Program Characteristics
In general, physical therapists will develop an individualized plan that works for a person’s specific needs. Some of the common programs are:
- Of sufficient intensity to improve muscle strength
- Regular and sustainable (long-term intervention/participation)
- Inclusive of dynamic balance training activities
- Performed at a center/clinic or home; group or individual
- Simple, easily instituted, and low cost
If you think you or a loved one might benefit from physical therapy, search the national database of physical therapist members of the American Physical Therapy Association (APTA) and find the physical therapist that is right for you.