Presenter: Rachel Cohen, Public Health Science, Global Public Health Scholars
My practicum project was an internship at Body Moksha Physical Therapy in Chatham, NJ as a Physical Therapy Assistant or shadow. My responsibilities included: shadowing and observing my supervisor, interacting with patients and assisting with exercises, videotaping clients for social media accounts, and gaining knowledge about overall impacts of physical therapy on populations and individuals. My practicum allowed me to understand how important the practice of physical therapy is for individuals that attend sessions, and how everyone can benefit from physical therapy. Additionally, I saw how aging populations are healthier as a result of therapy, overall promoting population health. My practicum connects to the public health concern of frailty, which is a global concern linked to the growing aging population. I gained insight from my supervisor about how different methods of physical therapy treatments vary per case and location, stating that facilities have various ways that they treat patients based on their process.
This was a very well done presentation and it was clearly stated that physical therapy is a great way for muscle recovery and lifelong health. I definitely agree that all countries should be able to have access to physical therapy as it can help improve an individual's way of life. The whole world should have access to the benefits of physical therapy, but it could be more difficult for those who live in lower-income countries. As it was stated in your presentation, physical therapy is often for maintenance within wealthier populations. One question I have is, how would you go about creating opportunities within low-income countries where resources are not as available compared to resources in wealthier countries?
Hi Rachel! I really enjoyed the presentation and the way you highlighted physical therapy as a means of maintenance and prevention, as opposed to the more traditional view on it being for just treatment. I think physical therapy should be used as a means of prevention in injury especially among older individuals. I had some questions on your thoughts of the physical therapy process, I was wondering if you think a larger group session would prove as useful to the smaller focused groups that are typical of physical therapy? In other words, would larger groups be less effective in treatment? I ask this because it could be cheaper and more effective to create larger group sessions in an intervention to…
Hi Megan, I appreciate your question. I think that we run into the issue of treatment being expensive and insurance not covering enough in many health care settings. This is due to our country not having a universal health care system; therefore, even people that are seeking treatments for chronic diseases run into the issue of not having proper care accessible. As a result, I think the solution to expand the scope of physical therapy to those in lower-income communities has to begin with creating health care policies in our federal and state governments that cover care for individuals that need it, no matter their socioeconomic statuses. Because these policies are not in place in our government at the time,…
This was a great presentation and I can clearly tell you have a passion to help improve the quality of life for others through physical therapy. As mentioned in your presentation, physical therapy can be quite expensive and not covered by insurance, making it more accessible to those in wealthier populations. What do you think is the best solution to expand the scope of physical therapy to those in lower-income communities?