Therapy Descriptions for Physical Therapy, Occupational Therapy, Speech Language Therapy, & Respiratory Therapy

Professional Physical Therapist helping an elderly woman

Occupational Therapist

Occupational Therapists help clients improve their ability to perform tasks in daily living and working environments. They work with individuals who suffer from a mentally, physically, developmentally, or emotionally disabling condition. Occupational therapists use treatments to develop, recover, or maintain the daily living and work skills of their patients. The therapist helps clients not only improve their basic motor functions and reasoning abilities, but also compensate for permanent loss of function. The goal is to help these clients have independent, productive, and satisfying lives.

Speech-Language Therapist

Speech-Language Therapists work with people who cannot produce speech sounds or cannot produce them clearly. They work with speech rhythm and fluency problems, such as stuttering and people with voice disorders, such as inappropriate pitch or harsh voice. They also work with problems understanding and producing language and those who wish to improve their communication skills by modifying an accent. The Speech-Language Therapist works with those with cognitive communication impairments, such as attention, memory, and problem solving disorders. Speech-Language Therapists also work with people who have swallowing difficulties.

Physical Therapist

Physical Therapists perform an evaluation of a patient’s physical problem or difficulty. This includes taking a detailed history and then evaluating the patient with tests and measures to assess the problem. These tests help the therapist to assess muscle strength, joint motion, sensation, coordination, balance, flexibility, injured tissues, and movement. Observation, palpation, and postural screenings are also very useful in helping the therapist to determine a particular problem.

A Physical Therapist will develop goals and a plan of care and then administer the appropriate treatment to aid in recovery of a problem or dysfunction.
Physical Therapy treatments include patient education that teach a patient how deal with a current problem independently and how to prevent the problem from recurring in the future i.e. correcting postural disturbances that cause neck/back pain.
Physical Therapy provides "hands on techniques" like massage, myofascial release, or joint mobilization to restore joint motion or increase soft tissue flexibility.

Respiratory Therapist

Respiratory therapists are also known as inhalation therapists. They treat patients who have difficulty breathing and work with all types of patients, from premature infants to stroke victims to elderly patients with lung disease. They operate equipment such as respirators and ventilators.

Foreign Trained Therapist

For the human resources department of many healthcare organizations, recruiting therapists is the job that keeps them up at night. Thus causes their facilities to have major gaps in treatment & over worked therapist. Caught between supply and demand for qualified therapists, most hospitals, clinics and private therapist offices find themselves always on the lookout for the next addition to their team. And for some, bringing in outside resources is the best bet to ensure staffing success. However, no one has a clear cut solution to the staffing dilemma until now. Find out More>>>