This week provides us with an occasion to acknowledge the amazing work of a group of health care professionals in alleviating people’s pain and helping restore their wellbeing.
The event is World (and also National) Physical Therapy Day, which is being observed on Sept. 8.
WPTD this year is focused on the theme, “Prevention and Management of Osteoarthritis”. OA is said to be the most common form of arthritis, occurring more often in the hands, hips, and knees.
Many people, like me, a stroke victim, realize more the value of physical therapy only when we need it in our life when it is rather late.
My post-stroke days two years ago, led to the home service therapy rendered by a PT practitioner, Dominic Garrucho, a Riverside College lecturer, who patiently introduced and administered interventions to relieve pain, mostly in my right arm, and helped me regain my routinary movement.
I eventually realized that PT has been a great help in regaining my mobility and body functions and making me take better care of myself and engage in socialization months after my debilitating experience.
Eventually, Dominic referred me to his mentor, Remo Bion, who specializes in pain management, for further sessions on further muscle strengthening, better joint flexibility and pain management, among others.
Remo is a physical therapist and a diplomate in osteopathy under the Osteopathic College of Ontario. Osteopathy is a branch of medical practice that emphasizes the treatment of medical disorders through the manipulation and massage of the bones, joints and muscles.
He has also been undergoing advance manual therapy training with experts in Malaysia.
Remo eventually led me to the community-based physiotherapy program he helped initiate at Barangay 29.
Today, more than two years after my stroke, I continue my regular exercises, this time at the Barangay 29 Community-based PT program organized and operated by Remo and his team his team (see story on opposite page).
It has been a long struggle through physical therapy to ensure that my body functions well despite the persistent limitation of a semi-paralyzed arm.
One thing that I greatly appreciate in my sessions with Dominic and, later with Remo, was the restoration of my right hand function in writing, although I must admit the difficulty today as I have to rely on my faithful and reliable fingerprint instead of signing documents due to spasticity resulting in an unsteady grip and erratic strokes of the pen.
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World Physiotherapy, an organization “committed to furthering the physiotherapy profession and improving global health”, said osteoarthritis “can affect people of all ages and physical fitness – including children, teenagers, and athletes” – with some forms of arthritis being more common among the elderly.
“The symptoms of arthritis can vary from week to week, and even from day to day. It can also affect people in different ways and each condition will have specific symptoms,” WP said, adding that, with the right treatment and approach, one can, however, manage symptoms and live well. “Regular physical activity and exercise are important in the management of all forms of inflammatory arthritis,” it further said.
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The celebration of the global and national event comes three weeks after the House of Representatives approved on third and final reading a bill that seeks to regulate the practice of physical therapy in the Philippines.
House Bill 8452, or the “Philippine Physical Therapy Law,” which was approved by a vote of 274-0, proposes the governance of the physical therapy profession.
The bill was principally filed by Reps. Kristine Alexie Besas-Tutor, a licensed physical therapist, Yedda Marie Romualdez, Jude Acidre, Patrick Michael Vargas, Maximo Dalog, and Rudys Caesar Fariñas.
Rep. Tutor said in reports that “people now realize that physiotherapists help patients get their lives back and make them better.”
HB 8452, she added “is a legislation in a long line of legal reforms of the many professions. It aligns with the new flexible patterns of profession laws, attuned to global standards, and best practices on government regulation of the overlaps of workplace and academe.”
The House Bill also establishes the Professional Regulatory Board of Physical Therapy.
The Board will be responsible for the registration, licensure, and regulation of physical therapists in the Philippines and will be under the administrative supervision of the Professional Regulation Commission.
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To make the celebration more meaningful, the calendar.io online platform suggests various activities to heighten awareness of the value of physical therapy and sow our appreciation to the professionals who render such services.
The activities include a visit to a physical therapist to be familiar with services they can benefit from, make donations to PT organizations, like the group of Remo that conducts volunteer barangay services, and provide financial assistance to those in need of PT services.
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I’d like to take this opportunity to thank Dominic and Remo and team – Jeffrey Alfeche, Precious Makilan, Keana Olvido and Alhana Jan Panes – as well as the interns from Riverside College for their laudable volunteer services at the Barangay 29 Community-based rehab program.
Thank you, too, to the Barangay officials and staff led by Captain Edner Gigje as well as Kagawad Ariel Balugo, Larsen Java and Grace Cientos for sustaining the program.
Happy World and National Physical Therapy Day!
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Have compassion on me, Lord, for I am weak. Heal me, Lord, for my bones are in agony. (Psalm 6:2)
I will give you back your health and heal your wounds,” says the Lord. (Jeremiah 30:17) – NWI
