Benefits of Aquatic Therapy for Seniors

Ellen Willis, physical therapist at Texas County Memorial Hospital, has seen the benefit of aquatic therapy for senior patients many times.

“We recently had a patient that hurt so bad, she couldn’t put on her shoes,” Willis said, explaining that the woman’s husband had to help his wife dress each day.

Lance King, PTA, does therapy with a patient in the pool at TCMH.

The patient’s physician ordered physical therapy to help her with her pain from osteoarthritis.  After the woman had an evaluation in physical therapy, an exercise routine in the TCMH physical therapy department’s pool began.

“Within two weeks our patient was dressing independently, putting on her own shoes, and she no longer needed assistance to walk across the room,” Willis said.

Over half the patients that the TCMH physical therapy team treats are over the age of 65, and those patients include outpatients and hospital inpatients.

According to Willis, many seniors do not realize that physical therapy can make an impact in the way they do activities of daily living.

“We are not just a place to have therapy following an injury or surgery,” Willis said.  “Vertigo, fibromyalgia, arthritis pain are just a few of the things that we can really help our older patients with.”

Willis summed up the need for physical therapy, “When pain, arthritis or vertigo progress to the point that they impact daily functional activities, it’s time to consider physical therapy.”

Older patients with joint replacements from surgeries done many years before also regularly seek physical therapy.

“The joint is no longer working as well as it did, but they don’t want to have another surgery,” Willis said.

Physical therapy treatment for such patients includes treatments that provide pain relief and strengthening exercises through aquatic therapy to make the joint more stable.

Frequently, aquatic therapy is the answer for those patients that are seeking relief from their affliction.  Willis ticks off a number of reasons that aquatic therapy works well for seniors, and they include heat from the water, the natural buoyancy of the body in the water and the water’s support of joints while providing resistance.

New patients to TCMH physical therapy must have an order from their healthcare provider for a physical therapy evaluation.  Individualized evaluations are done by a physical therapist at TCMH with each patient.  Willis and Stacey Ozias, a new physical therapist in the department, perform the evaluations, learning the goals of the patient and setting up a specific treatment plan with each patient.

“We provide individualized exercises in the physical therapy department and combine them with home exercises,” Willis said.

Patients visit the TCMH physical therapy department two to three times a week for one to two months.  Exercises to be completed at home are also taught to each patient.

“Exercises done in the water are considered a low-impact activity. The water’s natural buoyancy removes the stress and pressure off your muscles and joints,” Willis said.  She added that the pool assists in helping fall-risk patients remain upright, and “you don’t fall quickly” if footing is lost in the pool.

According to Willis, water provides a gentle way to exercise the joints.  Exercises that cause too much joint stress on land can be done in water. Additionally, aquatic therapy releases endorphins, which are a natural pain killer.

“Outside of the water, your joints may be too stiff and painful to move,” Willis said, “But aquatic therapy lessens your stiffness, decreases your pain level and makes it easier to move your joints and improve your joint flexibility.”

Willis also noted, “The warm water also provides a great benefit because it assists in relaxing muscles and vasodilates vessels, increasing blood flow to injured or affected areas.”

The water in the TCMH physical therapy department pool is heated to 98 degrees Fahrenheit.

Willis is a big believer that aquatic therapy may help patients that have not responded to other treatments or that are in a state of general physical decline.

“We had a patient who had to move in with her family because she was falling all the time and couldn’t even go to the bathroom by herself,” Willis said, sharing the story of a patient that couldn’t walk without someone to hold on to.

“After four to six weeks of exercise in the pool, our patient was able to walk with a cane, and she is now living on her own in housing for seniors,” Willis said.

Willis explained that she and her physical therapy team use aquatic therapy to “retrain communication between nerves and muscles”.

After patients have improved in the water, the patient may progress to a more traditional land-based therapy.

The TCMH physical therapy department utilizes two physical therapists and three physical therapist assistants to provide one-on-one care for each patient.  The first visit, the evaluation, lasts about one hour.  Subsequent visits are 20 to 40 minutes depending upon the therapy.

“A valuable portion of physical therapy with us is the educational component we can provide to our patients,” Willis said.  “We work to explain things to our patients and educate them about their body and why certain exercises work the way they do.”

Patients with an order for physical therapy can get into the department within a week.  TCMH physical therapy treats outpatients Monday through Friday at the hospital.  For additional information, contact the department at 417-967-1201.