The roots of physical therapy are traced back to the end of World War I, when
U.S. Army veteran Robert Fletcher came to Walter Reed Hospital in Bethesda, Maryland, seeking some form of recovery after having both legs amputated due to shrapnel wounds.
He was greeted by a woman who introduced herself as Mary McMillan, the hospital’s “Reconstruction Aide,” according to historical accounts provided by the American Physical Therapy Association. She was going to help him readjust to American life as much as possible through something called physical therapy — a term unfamiliar to almost everyone outside of the hospital.
With McMillan’s assistance, Fletcher recovered to the point that he was able to swim, climb ladders and even drive a car.
Now, more than 100 years later, as the number of senior citizens begins to surpass the number of children in the United States, physical therapists are racing to keep up with a record number of requests for appointments — and they are often being outpaced.
“Our profession has progressed astronomically, partly because there are so many more people now who are living longer,” said Dr. David Carter, owner of Apogee Therapy Center, a private business in Greenville and Spartanburg specializing in many forms of physical therapy and recovery. “And understanding what physical therapists can offer, as far as longevity and functioning, raises the demand.”
Dr. Carter added that while he treats all kinds of neck, leg, head and other sports injuries for younger age groups, he routinely sees more and more seniors who want to be walking and moving right up to their last step.
“The more they live, the more they want to move,” he said. “You don’t want to live to age 90 and be in a wheelchair when you’re 80.”
Donna Evans, of Inman, is one of those movers. Since her first physical therapy treatment in 2019 with Dr. Carter, Inman has not only gained relief from two hip replacements and a rotator cuff repair, she has also recovered a lot of her strength.
“When I first came here … I had no muscles,” Evans said. “I walked with a cane, I took pain pills, it was terrible. And David fixed me.”
Evans also pointed out that while her twice-a-week therapy involves many exercises that people can do on their own, working with a therapist such as Dr. Carter has “pretty much turned my life around.”
“Now I can actually deadlift 105 pounds, leg press 390 pounds, and now even work here as an aide,” she said. “And at one time, I could not even get off this (therapy) table.”
Evans is only one of many seniors across the United States who are looking to physical therapy for recovery from a myriad of ailments — Parkinson’s disease, pelvic floor weakness, strokes, pain in the joints that connect the jawbone to the skull, and lower back pain.
“Across the board, seniors come to us for lower back pain more than any other ailment,” Dr. Carter said. “So far, we have 150 different doctors that refer clients to Apogee.”
And these kinds of referrals are only expected to go up.
For example, in 2021, the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Maryland, estimated that 50 million Americans sought physical therapy for some form of chronic pain.
NIH Researcher Laurita M. Hack further reported even then that the number of physical therapists is “10-20% less than the number of patients in need.”
The Bureau of Labor Statistics projects physical therapy occupations to grow 15 percent through 2032, much faster than the average for all occupations.
About 13,900 openings for physical therapists are projected each year, on average, over the decade.
“And we’re already looking to open a third Apogee office in the upstate,” Dr. Carter said.
In the next 10 years, Dr. Carter and other physical therapists are likely to be at the edge of a rehabilitative boom; the U.S. Census Bureau is projecting older adults to outnumber children by the year 2034 for the first time in U.S. history.
And between now and then, the concern over keeping people younger and moving might very well become: Who’s going to pay for all the physical therapy and rehabilitation?
By L. C. Leach III
