Physical Therapy
Physical therapy is a health care profession that recognizes that human functional movement is key to optimum health. Physical therapy therefore provides services in promotion, prevention, diagnosis, treatment, and rehabilitation for maintaining and restoring maximum movement and functional ability with relief from pain throughout human life cycle. Physical movement and functionality is often threatened by injury, disease, aging or environmental forces.
Physical therapists undergo extensive training to develop skills in assessing, diagnosing, and treating human movement behavior and functionality for overall physical, mental and social wellbeing. Therefore these professionals work within communities with other health professionals, patients, families and carers to develop health management plans to raise quality of life for people.
Although Physical Therapy was initially established as a health care profession in Sweden during the 18-1900's, the profession first took off in the United States in 1914 when “reconstruction aides” started graduating from Reed College in Portland, Oregon, and research in the discipline took off. During 1921, the Physical Therapy Association was founded by Mary McMillan and the PT Review first published research. The Physical Therapy Association is now called the American Physical Therapy Association (APTA). The popularity of Physical Therapy increased in 1924 as it became respected as a viable treatment for Polio.
The physical therapy profession continued to develop through the 1940's providing exercise, traction and massage treatments to restore patients' physical functions. With practice and knowledge in the field, treatments during the 1950's evolved to include spine and joint manipulative procedures. Where the base of physical therapists started in hospitals, their practice soon emerged in schools, colleges, orthopedic clinics, nursing facilities (including for geriatrics), medical and rehabilitation centers.
Current figures suggest that there are approximately 115,000 practicing physical therapists in the United States. The number is growing due to an increase in the demand for services by different groups, to advances in physical therapy technology and services, and to the aging baby-boom generation.