The importance of Physiotherapy in people’s well-being

According to the WHO, physiotherapy is “the science of treatment through physical means, therapeutic exercise, mass therapy, and electrotherapy. In addition, Physiotherapy includes the execution of electrical and manual tests to determine the value of the affectation and muscle strength, tests to determine the functional capacities, the amplitude of joint movement, and measures of the vital capacity, as well as diagnostic aids for the control of the evolution”.

This definition is the place for equivocations in our society, as they can be if the masseur, chiromasseur, etc., and the physiotherapist are the same professional and that is why we take advantage of this entry to clarify the differences that exist in this type of professionals.

The main difference is that the Physiotherapy or Physiotherapy Act is a service provided by the Degree in Physiotherapy, that is to say, by a person who has obtained his qualification at the University, guaranteeing the knowledge obtained there. Therefore, the physiotherapist is a health professional with the necessary skills to develop his profession.

In general, this health professional is associated with the application of means and techniques for the prevention, cure, or palliation of traumatic diseases or injuries (fractures, sprains, dislocations,…), rheumatic (arthritis, arthrosis,…), neurological (Stroke, Parkinson’s, muscular dystrophy, Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis,…), back pathology, respiratory pathology, urogynecological pathology, etc.

This thought is because, in our environment, Sobre todo is known to the physiotherapist, and integrated into the health field. The benefits that physical therapy can offer in the social environment are less known, and not for that reason less important. The set, socio-sanitary, allows the physiotherapist to bring important benefits in the new care model, such as:

• Home rehabilitation, with the objective of functional improvement of the person inside their home and surrounding environment. The possibility of carrying out the treatment in the place where the person lives leads us to know better those obstacles and problems with which he presents himself, being able to act and work minimizing them and avoiding or delaying this form of institutionalization.
• Physiotherapy in centers, to improve the Quality of Life and functional improvement. As professional connoisseurs of the guidelines to follow to reach concrete objectives, they can determine Individual Plans to achieve functional objectives for these people.
• Physiotherapy is the prevention of falls and the prevention of Sarcopenia, through the application of specific exercises for each specific case.
• Physiotherapy in Active Ageing, proposing, adapting, and teaching healthy exercises for each particular person.
• Training:  they are professionals with the knowledge to be able to educate and train other healthcare professionals and caregivers with programs for the mobilization and transfer of patients, postural hygiene, etc.
• Chronic:  they have the capacity and knowledge to be able to monitor activity programs for the maintenance of function and adapt the program in a personalized way in phases of exacerbation.
• Early age:  intervention programs at early ages with functional problems to improve and adapt their functional capacity and avoid obstacles that may hinder the functionality of these people in the future.

It is clear that the scope of action of the physiotherapist is very broad and little known and has a considerable impact on people’s well-being. In these actions, the physiotherapist uses different physical agents (electricity, cold, heat, water,…) to perform them, but the most important tools of a physiotherapist are SUS MANOS (with which they perform different types of manual therapy, including massage therapy) and KNOWLEDGE OF FIRE.