For injured workers, physical therapists help bridge the gap between injury and restored function. With most patients attending two to three physical therapy (PT) sessions per week over a matter of one or more months, physical therapists are among the providers injured workers see most frequently during their recovery journeys.
While their main goal is to address a patient’s physical limitations, functional abilities, and quality of life, physical therapists may also serve as educators, motivators, and trusted partners for injured workers throughout the challenging recovery process. Just in time for National Physical Therapy Month (celebrated every October), let’s look at the unique and multifaceted role of the physical therapist in an injured worker’s recovery.
Assessing the Road to Recovery
PT clinics generally schedule 60-minute initial evaluations, which ideally occur within the first seven days following an injury – and that timeline is important. A study in BMC Public Health, a peer-reviewed journal, shows that early commencement of PT is associated with a significantly shorter duration of disability.
What’s more, according to the Workers Compensation Research Institute, workers with low back pain who began PT within 14 days of injury experienced shorter temporary disability durations than those who started therapy later. Conversely, patients who initiated PT more than 30 days after injury were 46% more likely to be prescribed opioids and 89% more likely to have back surgery compared with those who began PT within three days after injury.
Focusing on Function
Physical therapists evaluate and address deficits in movement, strength, mobility, pain, and functional capacity to support recovery and restore independence. For injured workers, pain relief is important, but it’s not the only goalpost; successful recovery is about restoring the ability to perform daily activities and job duties.
According to a brief prepared for the U.S. Department of Labor, in a typical year about 4% of workers stop working or reduce their hours due to an injury or illness. PT is uniquely positioned to prevent those outcomes because progress is measured not only by pain levels, but by what a patient can safely do. Physical therapists often tailor recovery goals around the physical demands of a worker's job, helping ensure functional improvements translate into safe return-to-work progress.
Diagnosing Barriers to Recovery
Because they see injured workers so frequently, physical therapists are well positioned to observe barriers to recovery and share that information with the patient’s care team – which may include a physician, case manager, employer, and nurse – so they can intervene. These updates from physical therapists can help keep treatment plans and return-to-work decisions aligned.
Some of the most significant barriers to recovery are not physical at all, but behavioral. The American Physical Therapy Association specifically calls out the role of the physical therapist in the prevention and management of behavioral and mental health conditions. According to the association’s clinical practice guidelines, psychosocial risk factors associated with delayed return to work include high levels of perceived or self-reported functional disability, severity of pain, pain behaviors, fear-avoidance beliefs, low recovery expectations, and low self-efficacy – and the physical therapist has a front-row seat to all of them.
Social determinants of health can also become barriers to recovery for patients in PT. These may include economic stability, housing, social and family support, and health literacy. An example is lack of reliable transportation. If a patient cannot easily get to their PT sessions, they might miss appointments, which means slower recovery progress.
Fostering Empowerment
One way physical therapists can help combat barriers to recovery is through empowerment – not only through movement and exercise but also through encouragement and motivation. Research increasingly supports the idea that recovery outcomes are influenced not only by clinical interventions, but also by the quality of the therapeutic relationship.
An article in the Journal of Manual & Manipulative Therapy urges the integration of “person-centered care” in PT – defined as a philosophy or attitude that reflects the needs of individuals and places the person at the forefront of care. The article aptly describes: “Physical touch is incredibly powerful, however, kindness, human connection, and the environment in which we deliver interventions might be more powerful than the numerous clinical interventions we have mastered as providers.”
Helping Injured Workers Move Forward
The improvements patients may make in PT – in strength, range of motion, endurance, and confidence – have a meaningful impact on their recovery timelines and return-to-work readiness. Research consistently shows that earlier PT is associated with shorter disability durations, reduced utilization of medical services, and improved recovery outcomes for injured workers.
From creating a treatment plan and focusing on function to empowering patients and reporting recovery barriers along the way, physical therapists are helping injured workers to move forward in every sense.
