Change in 2020
Over the past 2 months, my career as a pediatric PT has taken a drastic turn. With schools closing and stay-at-home orders in effect, live physical therapy visits slowly dwindled to nothing. By now, we’ve heard plenty about telehealth and virtual doctor visits. It is important that we all try teletherapy in 2020 and 2021.
Those types of visits made sense to me, you can tell your doctor your symptoms over video and they can explain to you what is going on. If you need a prescription, they will be able to order it for you without ever having to leave the home. But what would this look like in the world of physical therapy? And pediatric physical therapy with Telehealth?
3 Reasons to Try Teletherapy
I never could have imagined how this would play out. I wondered, if my families switch to Teletherapy will they be receiving the best care? Will my patient’s continue to get better?
Now, having worked with families each week since mid March, I can tell you that I’ve been very pleased with the results! Here are my top reasons that Teletherapy has been both surprisingly enjoyable and incredibly effective in pediatric physical therapy.
1. Your physical therapist is instantly transported into your child’s natural environment
Teletherapy sessions allow for a physical therapist to see the environment that the child and family are working with every single day. While there is value to the equipment and tools that are available at a pediatric therapy clinic, those tools are not available to families to use when they leave the clinic.
They are left to their own creativity on how they will recreate the sessions they’ve worked in in their home environments. Working with families to discover what equipment (furniture, steps, stools, chairs etc.) they have around the house will help their child thrive. Together with these families, we’ve been able to adapt daily routines to maximize therapeutic outcomes.
2. Families feel more confident with their home program
Traditionally, families see their child practice their home program in many ways at the therapy clinic. The therapist asks the family to continue such activities at home. That is hard to do! Since starting teletherapy, families are independently demonstrating those home programs to the physical therapist via video calls. This really empowers our caregivers to take control over the home program and feel more confident in implementing it ongoing.
3. It is a great way to stay connected
A lot of families that receive pediatric services have worked very hard over months and sometimes years to get to where their child is currently functioning. Teletherapy has afforded many families the opportunity to allow physical therapists to continue to ensure that that hard work is maintained and progressed.
I have truly enjoyed continuing to watch my clients grow up and blossom despite being stuck at home. But for some, it has been very challenging and children are struggling in this new normal. Therapists can help to assist families through the more challenging aspects of this time as well. Staying connected via Teletherapy has allowed us to continue to provide another level of support. To read and learn more, check out our teletherapy page.
Conclusion
While I never imagined that one day I’d ever be able to say that I’m “working from home”. I am pleasantly surprised how much I do enjoy providing pediatric physical therapy via a teletherapy platform. If you are interested and want to try teletherapy and begin exploring how this could benefit your child, contact our office today at 773-687-9241! We hope to be zooming together soon!
