Accessibility is the act of ensuring that something, such as chiropractic care, is accessible easily to anyone—even those with disabilities affecting mobility, mental state, and more. A disability is defined, by legal law in the United States, as “someone who has a physical or mental impairment that has substantial and long-term adverse effect on his or her ability to carry out normal everyday activities.”
There’s an estimated 10.2 million people covered the DDA, or Disability Discrimination Act, in the United States alone. Removing barriers from healthcare is important because it means more people can have access to healthcare easier, while retaining their own independence.
In fact, a big part of chiropractor care, such as the care provided at AmeriWell Clinics, is to help people live life without debilitating pain. Most wellness centers, like AmeriWell, deal with both physical therapy and chiropractic care.
A big side of physical therapy is dealing with people who have some sort of physical restriction. It may not be entirely classified as a disability, but it does affect their daily life to an extent. When you first go to a physical therapy appointment, you will have a physical exam and evaluation, health history and testing procedures may also be done. You’ll be evaluated on your posture, movement, flexibility, muscle and joint motion and how you perform.
From there you may receive a clinical diagnosis, prognosis, plan of care, goal setting will happen eventually where you set long- and short-term goals to meet. You’ll also receive treatment, intervention, and self-management recommendations.
Common Conditions Requiring Care
Physical therapists treat more than you may think. They don’t just deal with sports-related injuries like tennis elbow, concussions, bad knees or shoulders. They don’t even just deal with messed up tendons and muscle sprains. No, a physical therapist treats a large variety of ailments.
Cardiopulmonary conditions, like COPD (chronic obstructive pulmonary disease), cystic fibrosis (CF) and post-myocardial infarction (MI) are all things that a physical therapist may treat, dependent upon their specialty.
Hand therapy, for conditions like trigger finger or carpal tunnel, though these are by no means the only issues one may have with their hands, these are very common issues.
Musculoskeletal dysfunction, like back pain, rotator cuff injuries (tears or otherwise), and joint disorders like temporomandibular joint disorders or TMJ are all common things a physical therapist might treat in regards to your skeletal dysfunction.
They even work with patients who have neurological conditions—from strokes, spinal cord injuries, Parkinson’s disease, Multiple Sclerosis, Vestibular Dysfunction and various brain injuries. Their goal in these instances is to help you adapt to your body’s restrictions, learn how to do things like walk, talk, eat, etc. on your own again, and better your life.
A physical therapist may also work with women on pelvic floor dysfunction, urinary incontinence and lymphedema included. They may also work with children, who have developmental delays, cerebral palsy, dystrophies and more.
It is not hard to find a physical therapist that can help you, who is accessible. Accessibility is a big thing in healthcare but especially in physical therapy where they work with disabled people often.
