Making Physical Therapy a Holistic Service to the Patient

Rehabilitation focuses on the restoration of function to individuals with impairment, functional limitation or disability. Physiotherapy is a rehabilitation profession concerned with identifying and measuring movement disorders and maximizing movement potential through evaluating, designing and implementing appropriate therapeutic strategies and improvement of psychological health of an individual ¹. Outcome studies have shown that rehabilitation programs are effective in improving long-term functional status and decreasing institutionalization. Medical rehabilitation affects fundamental recovery, and it almost certainly affects adjustment processes, learning of compensatory strategies, self-care and motivation of clients². The most successful rehabilitation programmes are those that have adopted a holistic approach (i.e. one that supplements physical therapy with psychological strategies to facilitate recovery). Rehabilitation from injury involves not only physical, but psychological considerations.

This paper aims at highlighting the notable place of psychological considerations in rehabilitation and to equip physiotherapists and health professionals with necessary knowledge that may assist them in coping with setbacks that may occur in patient management.

The objectives of this paper are to critically examine the psychological well-being of the patient and incorporate same to the physical therapy management.