October is National Physical Therapy Month. As part of the campaign to both celebrate the profession of physical therapy (PT) and increase public awareness of the benefits of PT, the American Physical Therapy Association (APTA) is seeking to raise awareness of the opioid crisis in America. Opioids are prescribed and misused at alarming rates, according to the APTA website, to the point where economic costs approach $600 billion annually. Starting in the 1990s, efforts to control pain – one of the primary reasons patients seek medical advice – have been “opioid-centric.” Fast forward, in 2016 alone, 42,000 people died in the US from an opioid overdose, including more than 17,000 from prescription opioids.
New perceptions are now being developed to treat pain with an integrated, multidisciplinary approach. APTA advocates that physical therapy interventions are an essential component of this multidisciplinary approach. There are many studies with high-quality evidence that show treatments provided by PTs are equally effective in reducing pain and improving function for a wide variety of diagnoses. PTs can design an individualized program for pain patients that includes exercise, manual therapy, stress management, eliminating sleep deprivation and education on modern pain science of the mechanisms and contributing factors that lead to pain.
As part of the celebration of National Physical Therapy month, APTA has designated Saturday, October 13, 2018, as the Global PT Day of Service. APTA invites everyone to participate in a day of service that gives back to our communities. This can be a simple thing like donating a pint of blood, working in a soup kitchen or helping clean up in a neighborhood park.