Why Might Your Senior Need Physical Therapy?
You might not think that physical therapy is something that your senior needs, especially if she isn’t dealing with an injury. But there are a wide variety of ways that working with physical therapists can help your elderly family member to live a healthier and happier life. Building up her endurance and strength benefits your elderly family member in so many areas of her life.
Healing from an Injury
Physical Therapy Philadelphia, PA: Seniors and Physical Therapy
The most common reason your elderly family member might encounter physical therapy is if she becomes injured or is healing from an event like surgery. Seniors often find that it takes longer to heal than it did in the past, and that can be frustrating. Physical therapists are able to evaluate your senior’s condition and recommend exercises and activities that help her to heal more effectively. Sticking with these recommendations can help your elderly family member to avoid complications while she’s healing, too.
Helping Her to Become or Stay Active
Physical therapists can also help your elderly family member to either stay active safely or become more active than she is currently. Working with physical therapists might be the first step in getting back to exercising on a regular basis, especially if that’s something that your senior’s doctor has recommended. Being more active in a safe manner is crucial in order to keep your senior from injuring herself.
Reducing Fall Risk
Another major reason for doctors to recommend physical therapy to aging adults involves reducing fall risk. Depending on the contributing factors your senior is facing around fall risk, working with her physical therapist can do a lot to help her be much safer at home. As your elderly family member builds strength and learns to use assistive devices, she works toward keeping herself from experiencing a fall that could seriously injure her.
Preventing Muscle Atrophy
As your elderly family member continues to age, she may become more sedentary. That has a lot of impacts on her life and her health, including on her muscles. Seniors tend to lose muscle strength over time, but if your elderly family member isn’t very active, she may find that she’s losing that muscle a lot more quickly. Working with a physical therapist can slow down that atrophy.
Allowing Her to Remain Independent
One of the biggest reasons your elderly family member might be interested in physical therapy is because it can help her to protect her independence. Many times, aging adults put themselves in situations that are not necessarily safe for them because they’re determined to avoid being regarded as infirm or old. If that’s something that has become important to your aging family member, working with a physical therapist may help her to become stronger and better able to meet the challenges that she faces in her everyday life.
There might be a combination of other reasons your aging family member might benefit from physical therapy as well. Finding the right therapies for your senior’s challenges helps her to have the best possible quality of life
If you or an aging loved one are considering Physical Therapy in Philadelphia, PA please contact the caring staff at True Direct Home Health Care today.
Doc, as he is called by everyone - staff, patients and clients - first experienced home health care and hospice care while as a colleg student at King's College as he cared for his mother every day while she first battled COPD and then lung cancer. It was during this time that he came to understand that caring for a patient was more than just clinical expertise.
"Admittedly, my strongest attribute is my communication skills and the simple fact that I love to help people. Even the smallest thing you can do for someone really can mean so much to them long term. In fact, it could change them forever. That's what providing quality personal home health care should be all about."
In his spare time, he cooks for homeless shelters and children's music and arts events. He also is highly involved in his local youth sports soccer academy as a coach and Board member.
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