Physical Therapy

Physical therapy is a medical discipline that can assist a wide variety of patients with a broad range of conditions. A good physical therapy routine can speed up your recovery, help you regain independence, and improve your quality of life. Our physical therapy services in Manistique offer comprehensive programs designed to help you make the most of your recovery period, and our trained professional physical therapists make your wellbeing their top priority.

What is physical therapy?

Physical therapy (PT), or physiotherapy, is a field of medicine focused on identifying and treating impairments that impact a patient’s ability to move and perform daily tasks. Common conditions that physical therapists treat include sprains and sports injuries, recovery from surgical procedures, arthritis, back pain, and muscular atrophy. If you have recently had major surgery, particularly involving a joint or limb, an effective PT regime can assist with your recovery and help improve blood flow and range of motion during your downtime.

What do physical therapists do?

Physical therapists are trained in a variety of techniques to help restore function and strength to their patients. Treatments employed by physical therapists primarily include mechanical force and movements, exercise and electrotherapy.

New patients can typically expect an initial 60 minute one-on-one consultation with their physical therapist, who will discuss any issues they might be having and what they would like to improve. Your physical therapist will then develop a customized treatment plan focused on your individual goals using interventions to promote the ability to move, reduce pain, restore function, and prevent disability.

Who needs Physical Therapy?

Schoolcraft Memorial Hospital is proud to offer physical therapy in Manistique for a range of conditions and patients. Physical therapy can be beneficial to many people, some common conditions that are treated by our physical therapists include:

Acute and Chronic pain
Post-surgery: Hip replacement, knee replacement, shoulder replacement, ankle replacements and fusions, rotator cuff repair, spinal fusions, laminectomy, discectomy, ACL repair, meniscectomy
Joint pain/Arthritis: Osteoarthritis, Rheumatoid Arthritis
Lymphedema
Sports injuries
Balance and Vestibular disorders including: Benign Paroxysmal Positional Vertigo (BPPV)
Post-Concussion
Stroke
Parkinson’s Disease
Traumatic Brain Injuries (TBI)
Multiple Sclerosis (MS)
Spinal Cord Injuries
Muscular Dystrophy
Cerebral Palsy
Alzheimer’s

What physical therapy treatments are offered?

Our highly qualified physical therapists offer several different treatments to our valued patients. These include:

Manual Therapy

This is a form of skilled hand movements with a primary focus to improve soft tissue mobility, joint range of motion, and pain levels in order for a person to return to a prior level of function without difficulty. Although our physical therapists primarily use their hands for manual techniques they also may use instruments to assist them with the desired treatment plan.

Therapeutic Exercises

Therapeutic exercises refers to a range of movements and physical activities that are designed to improve function, strength and mobility in patients with restricted movement. The overall aim of therapeutic exercise is to help a patient recover from a recent trauma and return them to a fully functional, pain-free life.

Therapeutic Activities

Much like therapeutic exercises, therapeutic activities are aimed at improving patient quality of life and building independence and overall well-being. Therapeutic exercises are repeated motions aimed at improving specific movements, therapeutic activities replicate the physical demands of everyday activities to help build functional strength and confidence.

Neuromuscular Re-education

Neuromuscular re-education focuses on helping the brain and body to reconnect and relearn how to properly contract and relax muscles in everyday life. This treatment focuses on strengthening, stabilizing, and mobilizing muscles, particularly in the core, to assist with spinal and balance issues.

Gait Training

If you have recently suffered an injury that affects your ability to move around, your doctor may recommend gait training. This form of physical therapy aims to improve balance, strength, and independence in walking to improve patient quality of life and ability to walk on their own.

Mckenzie Method-Mechanical Diagnosis and Therapy

This approach to patient care, also known as MDT, is a reliable assessment process intended for all musculoskeletal problems including back, neck, and extremity pain. MDT was created by, Robin Mckenzie, an expert physiotherapist in the 1950’s. This exercise based approach assesses, diagnoses, and treats patients with clinical reasoning. Be prepared for your physical therapist to test your movement patterns along with symptoms during the evaluation to create a home exercise program to improve your pain and restore your movement.

For more information: https://www.mckenzieinstituteusa.org/method-patients.cfm

Patient Education and Home Exercise Program Instruction

Physical therapy also involves educating our patients on how to care for themselves and giving them specialized exercise plans to meet their needs. Our trained physical therapists develop plans for each patient to maximize their recovery and ensure they are properly educated in what to avoid when it comes to healing their bodies.

LSVT BIG

Schoolcraft Memorial Hospital Rehabilitation Services is now offering the LSVT BIG program. LSVT BIG is an intensive, amplitude-focused physical and occupational therapy approach for individuals diagnosed with Parkinson’s Disease, in all stages.

For more information regarding our LSVT BIG program, please click here.