Metro Plus
Bangalore
Chennai
Coimbatore
Delhi
Hyderabad
Kochi
Madurai
Thiruvananthapuram
Visakhapatnam
Physiotherapy route to HEALTH
|
Physiotherapy is getting popular as people realise its potential, but the physiotherapy scene is not quite a happy one, reports LEELA MENON.
|
AS KERALA gets increasingly ravaged by lifestyle diseases, physiotherapy is gaining a growing relevance in the medical scenario. Once derisively known as remedial gymnasts, physiotherapists have now acquired respectability, to be acknowledged as the body mechanics, in the forefront of health care by promoting and preserving health and preventing injury.
The on-their-toes generation, professionals with no leisure to indulge in the luxury of an Ayurvedic cure, are seeking the physiotherapic shortcut to occupational pain relief.
The physiotherapists have indeed become an indispensable and inevitable presence in today's daily life, be it paediatric, gynaecological or geriatric.
Their frontiers have extended from accident injuries to the disabled, the sick, the victims of congenital disabilities and even to the sports arena. As Kerala is on the top of the road accident chart, accident victims with head and other injuries are habitual presences in the physiotherapist's room.
Birth diseases like cerebral palsy, others like Bell's palsy, and delayed milestones( delay in walking etc of children) are brought to physiotherapists. A new problem , which physiotherapists encounter and correct is the bent posture of school children, a result of prolonged carrying of heavy school bags on their back. "This restricts lung movement besides causing back pain, " said Arun Kumar, physiotherapist of Lakshmi Hospital.
Pregnant women are taught to correct postural flaws, which are common during pregnancy, as also exercises after delivery to curb obesity or muscular degeneration, or loosening of abdominal muscles.
Early marriages and early deliveries in some communities also breed health problems for women, which needs physiotherapeutic help.
Women are also victims of life style diseases due to lack of exercise in their office-to-home routine, off-the-shelf food habits, and excessive addiction to TV serials, depriving them of any exercise. thus acquiring a legacy of back pain. A common female theme in Kerala is the back pain, which can also be a gynec problem. "Early diagnosis is essential for cure," remarks Dr. Lalitha. Women also develop loss of urine control as their pelvic muscles weaken or as a result of prolonged urinary infections. They can also be helped by physiotherapists. In greying Kerala, with extended life spans, a whole new range of geriatric problems have begun to claim physiotherapists' attention. They include deterioration of muscular strength , loss of balance, and frequent falls as a result. This is attributed to lack of physical exercises in the present flat culture which gives no room for mobility.
Parkinsons' Disease is also part of the geriatric scenario, which needs the physiotherapist's attention. They are also given proper gait training and postural corrections.
According to Arun Kumar, young marketing executives and medical representatives, who are habitual two-wheeler riders are also `physiotherapy cases'.
"They suffer from mental tensions and serious postural problems, joint strains, arthritis, and cervical spondilitis," he said. "We also teach the workers in the industrial belt how to sit and stand during their daily routine," Arun Kumar added.
"Doctors treat the anatomical problems. Physiotherapists evaluate neuromuscular, musculo-skeletal and other functions of patients to decide appropriate therapeutic procedure. For this they need knowledge and skill and the methods to apply their knowledge to manage acute and chronic pain, through methods such as electrotherapy, mobilisation and manipulation massages and soft tissue techniques and even traction," Arun Kumar said.
"Physiotherapy is rehabilitative medicine. We provide occupational physical, and speech therapy rehabilitation. We maintain stroke victims, and rehabilitate orthopaedic patients. Physiotherapists also help sportsmen to develop muscle strength," said Aji Paul George of Torture Prevention Centre here.
The physiotherapists' consulting room today is crowded with patients suffering from polio to palsy, stroke to paralysis and accident victims This is apart from orthopaedic cases like fracture, arthritis, osteoarthritis et al.
Kerala is also witnessing an increase in occupational diseases. Such as low back pain, spondilitis, lumbar spondilitis, postural problems which characterises the middle aged workaholic and cyber citizens. "It is the attitude attained by the body", explains Arun Kumar. Even as the role of physiotherapists expands, the problems they face is also increasing, the most predominant one being the absence of a National Physiotherapists' Council, which gives their course legitimacy and ensures job opportunities abroad. The physiotherapy scene is overcrowded, with not enough vacancies in hospitals, which do not have physiotherapy wings, except in multi-speciality hospitals.
"According to Government rules,even primary health centres should have a physiotherapist but today even Taluk hospitals do not have one", Mr.Aji George said.
Which restricts the job opportunities of physiotherapists. "My parents spent over Rs. 2 lakhs for my course but even now I am dependent on them for bus fare. I had to pay the hospital to take me as a probationer," said a frustrated Daya, in one of the city hospitals.
Another facet of the physiotherapy scene is the mushrooming of spurious physiotherapy courses . The Nationalist Students Congress State Committee has demanded government action against spurious physiotherapy colleges, which collect heavy fees from aspiring students, though they have no legitimacy.
Many of these colleges function under the labels of fake institutions, the committee of the Congress said in a statement recently. They offer four-year degree courses or short-term courses, charging upto Rs. 2 lakhs.
While the basic qualification for admission to the physiotherapy course globally is a degree in science with at least 50 per cent marks, these institutions admit students ,irrespective of the group they have taken in college. Job-hungry youths gravitate towards job-promising courses, and a horde of virtually unqualified physiotherapists spew out of such institutions. The Congress has decided to launch an agitation against such institutions.
Considering the increasing importance of physiotherapy, it is necessary for the physiotherapist to have quality, knowledge and the skill to apply their knowledge to manage acute and chronic pain. Which is absent in the cascading number of untrained physiotherapists that spew out of such spurious institutions, who teach just exercises without knowledge.
This can result in breeding new health problems such as stiff joints and even fractures. But as yet the Government is refusing to acknowledge the looming danger in the medical profession or control the calamitous trend.
Obviously there is gross ignorance about the role of physiotherapists. A physiotherapist has to ensure healthy progression in the patient for which constant supervision is needed, he must know which muscles need tuning and how to correct a faulty posture. The treatment of the physiotherapist is without medicine but its cure can be permanent, with no side effects if he is properly qualified.
Though the physiotherapists have to work in close collaboration with the physician, they are very badly paid, which again, is a cause for grouse among physiotherapists. "Abroad, a physiotherapist is paid on par with a doctor", says Mr.Aji.
The physiotherapy scene surely needs a re-look to ensure quality. The need to establish a National Physiotherapy Council is urgent, as it can correct the existing flaws.
Printer friendly
page
Send this article to Friends by
E-Mail
Metro Plus
Bangalore
Chennai
Coimbatore
Delhi
Hyderabad
Kochi
Madurai
Thiruvananthapuram
Visakhapatnam
|
