Patient Education
Providing a home exercise program (HEP) to patients is one of the most fundamental and important aspects of physical therapy.
Our jobs don’t end after our patients leave the AUC Physical Therapy clinic for the day. In fact, most patients perceive physical therapy to encompass the entire injury recovery process — from initial evaluation to well past discharge, and at every step in between. If you can get your patients to adhere to their home exercise programs, you can simultaneously improve their outcomes and their perception of their experience with physical therapy HEP at your clinic.
Our HEP for PT in Hempstead is specifically designed for each patient to keep them engaged with their care by giving them a home exercise program they’ll actually use and love.
Patient Education
Our team is emphasizing on:
- Educating patients on pain versus harm by explaining the nature of pain and nociception and suspending the belief that pain is an indicator of further tissue damage.
- Reinforcing messages that reduce fear or anxiety about pain
- Emphasizing the idea that exercise will lead to less pain, anxiety, and depression.
- Countering maladaptive coping strategies
- Employing motivational techniques and Motivational interviewing to set personal treatment goals
- Managing expectations by educating patients the importance of their own HEP.
What is HEP?
Exercising at home seems like a perfectly normal activity. Most people do if they’re trying to lose weight, build muscle, or something similar. However, in the realm of physical therapy, an HEP, or home exercise program, is very different.
A home exercise program is when your physical therapist creates an at-home workout regimen that is designed specifically to help you get over whatever issue you’re facing. In many ways, it focuses on helping you maintain the benefits of physical therapy in the comfort of your own home.
A HEP will help you maintain your body and further your progress at home. So, you don’t have to come into the office as often, but you don’t lose your progress like you would if you simply stopped doing therapy. This accelerates healing, teaches you valuable exercises you can do at home, and generally helps with your overall health.
This is crucial because physical therapy is a movement-based treatment. Like any other exercise, it doesn’t produce long-term results unless you stick with it as much as possible. Of course, once you heal an injury, you’ll be better, but even in that case, you learn techniques that prevent or help you treat more minor versions in the future. This is a pivotal part of physical therapy.
Benefits of HEP for Physical Therapy
HEP therapy comes with a number of benefits.
First, it helps you maintain the progress you’ve made in therapy. As we’ve said, if you start physical therapy and just stop for weeks, it probably won’t help much. However, even if you stick with it, the short breaks between sessions can cause regression. HEP prevents that.
Then, there’s the benefit of learning ways to deal with injuries. You might heal perfectly fine and be able to stop your physical therapy regimen, but what happens if you start to feel pain in the same area years down the road? Well, if you participated in a HEP, you’ll know how to work that specific area without causing damage, and you might be able to prevent worsening it. You don’t just get treatment. You learn valuable skills with HEP programs.
Finally, in situations where the problem is long-lasting, you can maintain the results of your physical therapy in the long term.
For example, if you go to physical therapy for age-related mobility problems, your therapist might create an HEP that you can keep doing at home instead of coming into the office multiple times per week. You’ll still be able to keep your mobility, balance, etc if you keep up with the HEP.
In general, HEP is a maintenance program. It helps you take what you learned in physical therapy home so you don’t fall back off the wagon and end up where you were before therapy.
At AUC, we create HEP specifically for you. We will look at your needs, your therapy progress, and more to develop a program that helps you progress.
Why is Patient Education Important?
Patient education is a major part of any HEP program. It ensures that you know what you’re doing and won’t accidentally hurt yourself or otherwise set your progression back.
At AUC, we value that, and we dedicate ourselves to client-therapist relationships to ensure that you know what you’re doing and you understand your situation.
If you’re interested in HEP therapy, contact AUC Physical Therapy, today!