Physical Therapy in Advocacy

Advocacy is an important aspect of any profession. However, it is not always given much importance by the professionals themselves. Physical therapy, like every other profession, is still growing but the difference is that it is not yet as flourishing as other well-established professions. It also needs advocates to help make it better not only for the welfare of the professionals but also for the people that they help.


We met one such advocate of physical therapy, Mr. Royson Mercado, PTRP. Not to be confused though, being an advocate does not mean that you do not work in the same way any normal physical therapist would. With everything he is working on and all the places he works in, he is exposed to different settings almost everyday, but as he said, “The bulk of physical therapy should be clinical duties even if you are an advocate.” He stated that being a clinician should always be the main duty of a physical therapist. Even an educator or researcher must perform clinical duties too because it is where you can actually practice or apply what you teach or what you research.


On a normal day, he sees patients as early as 8am or at 9 at the free clinic in CAMP. He stays in CAMP until 5pm as a supervisor to the interns and also to help in the patients’ treatment. In between those hours at CAMP he sometimes attends forums or meetings that are related to research (he is part of three researches) and also to physical therapy welfare and development as an advocate of his profession. On other days he has no clinical work and sometimes he would inspect schools for CHED. He is also a private practitioner who is on house call for patients. He sets his own price range to help people who cannot afford to pay a lot for therapy, it's his way of helping the needy. As a private practitioner and a clinician he is able to use the experiences he gets in the clinical setting to be able to further his research.


Although every physical therapist must be an advocate for his profession as his/her every action will reflect on his profession, being an advocate requires a lot of skills, some are innate in every physical therapist while others are developed to be used in advocacy. Good communication skills and good writing skills are needed in being an advocate as it requires paperwork and talks, especially when it comes to matters of legislation. But these skills are already possessed by a physical therapist as paperwork is also part of a clinician's life and communication skills must be well developed to be able to communicate with different kinds of patients. Knowledge of the different laws and the process of passing these laws are the things physical therapists need to know for them to become “hardcore” advocates.


Mr. Royson, takes part in talks when it comes to the welfare of physical therapy. Some of these would include those that concern PT laws. He is also part of the group of physical therapists who helped push through the proposal of a new physical therapy law that would amend the obsolete R.A. 5680. Unfortunately, the proposal for the law has gone back to level one because of the change in the administration. Luckily the efforts were not wasted as the law being proposed now has gone through a lot of changes from the proposed law it was before. And it may be easier to pass it this time as it is more polished and improved. After the 2010 elections they are planning on proposing the law to the senate again. Hopefully this time, it will be passed.



Reflections


Physical therapists are a health professional that facilitates healing, habilitation, rehabilitation, prevention of anatomical barriers and promotion of a healthy lifestyle. They struggle to be able to play their roles in the Philippine community. Essential to this promotion of the profession is advocacy. As a member of the profession, a physical therapist is expected to be an advocate of his/ her field of the healthcare system. He/ she is expected to utilize well the gained knowledge and skills exclusive for the profession to encourage the society, especially those at the rural setting who have less information regarding the work of a physical therapist, to trust the profession in its function in the healthcare system. As a physical therapist, he/ she is also expected to be a catalyst for the upbringing of the profession and for the changes proposed.


Physical therapy, as what I can regard it is, is a profession that exist despite of the many challenges it currently faces in the Philippines. Fleeing from the country to maximize the application of the profession is very easy. But then, we can find that there are already a number of sparks that indicate that the growing improvement in the conception of a physical therapist. At this time, information becomes a very powerful and a very vital ally. Every physical therapist must make sure that they advocate the profession and educate the society that a very noble profession exists and profounds.


By Tristan Gabriel Dizon

Working as professionals requires appropriate skills and experience to arrive at a successful action. Responsibility is then needed for these tasks to be accomplished effectively and efficiently. This is also arrived at with the help of communication skills necessary in the work field. Physical therapists should be responsible and interpersonal.


These qualities are checked in our group’s observation on a physical therapist at work in the field of advocacy. Mr. Royson Mercado, PTRP, from UP Manila is the leading physical therapy advocate, enforcing proposed laws for the improvement of the physical therapy system in the country. In the observation, he explained that the system of the profession in the Philippines really needs improvement. The definition in the RA 5680 is outdated and needs to adapt the World Confederation for Physical Therapy’s definition of PT, according to him. However, due to the disapproval of the government, his team has to redo it.


“A professional should be an advocate of his profession,” he stated. Because of the mere fact that PTs in the country are not autonomous by law, there has to be someone to push for changes, and he felt that it is he who should initiate the force. “Advocacy is my passion,” he added. Aside from being a private clinician and an instructor he sees his advocacy advocate as a passion, though not earning a single nil from it.


Mr. Royson really sets a good example for us. In spite of his numerous roles as a physical therapist, he manages to equalize them and still be productive as a professional. Though working, he is still pursuing a master’s degree in the College of Public Health. He lets me realize that no matter how hard your situation may be, if you want something, nothing can deter you from achieving it.


By Richard Tiu

It is a common belief in the Philippines that physical therapists are the ones performing massages in spas and hotels. This belief was created because PTs also use massage in their therapy of patients and people have the idea that when someone is skilled in the science of massage then they are automatically PTs. This connotation of PTs is a bit demeaning because physical therapists didn't go through 5 years of college, taking subjects like organic chemistry and comparative anatomy, just to be taken that lightly.


I was told by the upperclassmen that even though physical therapists use massage as a form of therapy there are a lot of other procedures and exercises used for therapy. Massage was also taught to them for just a couple of weeks too.


However, before taking the class perspectives in physical therapy, I was limited to the idea that a physical therapist may either be a clinician or an educator but because of the class and more importantly because of the first clinical exposure I was more enlightened about the vast possibilities for a physical therapist A physical therapist may also be an administrator, researcher, educator or a clinician, and being a clinician too has even more divisions to choose from. But more importantly a physical therapist is an advocate, he/she may be not be a hardcore advocate but everything he/she does in his/her job represents the whole profession.


Nonetheless, a physical therapist cannot choose just one of these possibilities as every physical therapist must practice at least two or three of these jobs because a physical therapist cannot do his/her job without being involved in another. There are a lot of possibilities in the field of physical therapy and I cannot wait to explore them all!

By Marc Christian Cuizon


 Highlighting that physical therapy is the cornerstone of rehabilitation was the best impact brought about by this clinical exposure our group has experiences. This diverse tract of advocacy for Pt is what made us appreciate the profession more, for PTs like Sir Royson make a stand that they have to do something for the further development of their profession, and that they are willing to do EXTRA work for this though they do not earn from it.


Occupation vs Profession, the comparison of these two terms have been established during our interview. Personally, I admire the professional outlook of Sir Royson on physical therapy as exemplified by his drive to work extra hours on the arduous process of lawmaking in the Philippines for the welfare of current and future physiotherapists in this country. Amidst the 20,000 plus registered Pts in the country who earn and make a living out of this profession/occupation, Sir Royson is sincerely submissive to the mission that he has dedicated himself to.


It may be cheesy to put into writing how we admire his dedication to his field of work, however, we truly do, and personally I told myself that after graduating I will save money, uplift and secure my family’s finances, and then continue my studies to somehow follow this advocacy of Sir Royson. Thus the bottom-line is that this clinical exposure has made a deep impact on my outlook of this profession I can see myself in.



If I have to be honest throughout my reflection, then I will be. I have never seen myself as a physical therapist. Ever since I have known of it, I have never seen physical therapy as an actual occupation, let alone a profession. I have never thought it would be comparable to other career choices. I never thought of physical therapist to be just about massage but still, I saw it as a “weak science” even though, ironically, I enrolled in UP-Manila with a PT course.

by Joshua Joel Manoharan

Everything I thought about physical therapy have somewhat remained but they have been modified at the very least. After our clinical exposure, I have become more susceptible to the idea of physical therapy itself. I may not choose PT in the long run, but still I now see it as a possibility, as a choice that I am willing to consider, unlike before.


The question now lies with how it has affected me into thinking this way. So, going to our exposure, we spoke with an advocate of PT, Mr. Royson. “Advocacy is not for everybody,” he said. I used to think it was, but after the interview I do believe him now. Advocacy is a lot harder than it is given credit for, and the physical therapists that “fight” for PT are preoccupied with clinical duties and it doesn’t help that there are relatively only a few of them. No wonder it is not as flourishing as it should be! This made me look at physical therapy with a lot more respect than I used to.


I had a choice to leave or stay. After I have seen the differences he and other PTs can make either as an advocate or not, I stand by my choice for now until I finish. Physical therapy.

by Glenn Michael Maglasang