Like many people, I have benefitted from physical therapists. They make the aches and pains go away.
That’s why I was receptive when Pat Grant, a former Colorado state legislator and president and CEO of the National Western Stock Show, told me his story — and what it inspired him to do.
He went to a “PT” (physical therapist) who was a CU faculty member.
“My physical therapy was so successful that I became committed to the program,” Grant, the perennial activist, told me.
The program he meant was the effort to bring physical therapy to rural Colorado, which has limited access to a PT.
Grant’s partner in the effort is Margaret Schenkman, who earned a PhD from Yale in microbiology, then realized, “I didn’t want to work with test tubes. I saw the light.”
Schenkman is now director of the PT program and associate dean of PT education at CU’s medical school.
Grant asked me to meet Schenkman, who would update me on advances in PT education at CU.
Schenkman is an innovator on many fronts. She is identifying a new role for PT in an era of limits on health care, and of an aging population.
She was one of the first to see the importance of PT for people with Parkinson’s, and runs studies of the effect of PT on people with neurological disorders.
I met with Schenkman in my office, and then, in one of those small world stories, bumped into her the next Shabbos as she was walking her dog and I was walking to shul.
The thing is, both of us were walking.
Not something to be taken for granted if you’ve ever needed PT for a back problem or an injury. The body can take only so much before it doesn’t work so well anymore — or works only in pain.
Enter Pat Grant, whoses passion is to facilitate PT in rural Colorado, where people with the same aches and pains may not have the same access to qualified physical therapists.
As usual, the problem is money.
Before Grant and Schenkman went to work, this is what they found:
There were no scholarships to study PT at CU except for a pitifully small $4,000 spun off a $100,000 endowment for students who would practice in rural Colorado.
That was three years ago.
Grant, Schenkman and Karen Aarestad, development head at CU’s medical school, put together a strategic plan to raise funds for immediate use and for endowments; to make it possible for 65 students a year to study PT at CU.
The prerequisites are similar to medical school: the sciences, including anatomy, physics, chemistry, plus math and psychology. Some applicants arrive with an MA or PhD in other fields, such as exercise science, but always with the prerequisites in science.
That $100,000 endowment is now close to $1 million, with a goal of $5 million in six years.
The corollary goal is to award scholarships annually, and it’s beginning to happen. That $4,000 awarded to students who would practice in rural areas is now up to $80,000.
Scholarships are now as high as $10,000 to offset tuition, some based on merit, some in exchange for a commitment to practice in rural areas or underserved urban areas.
“Karen and Pat together have been a wonderful education for me,” says Schenkman.
Full tuition is about $35,000-$45,000, plus living expenses. A typical graduate student’s debt is $80,000. Starting salaries are about $50,000-$60,000.
The need for the scholarships is clear.
PT students now receive supervised clinical experience for 38 weeks out of their entire education — in rural areas, in Denver and around the US.
Schenkman stimates the market for PT graduates in the Denver area at about 65 annually. CU and Regis University are the two PT schools in the area.
“We don’t have room for more students,” says Schenkman of CU.
While Denver can absorb 65 new PTs annually, Schenkman says that because Colorado is such a popular state, there is no dearth of PTs in Denver, but across the country there is a shortage, especially in rural areas.
Coloradans exercise; our state has the lowest obesity rate of any state in the nation. Does that mean that Denver needs more, or fewer, PTs?
“I would guess that the healthiness and the injuries from exercise balance out,” says Schenkman, “but that’s just a guess.
“The bigger issue is this: With an aging population and limitations in the health care system, there will be a greater need for PTs to provide part of the primary care that people need.”
Schenkman foresees a change in the law regarding referrals to a PT.
Right now, one needs a referral to see a PT.
“With the changing health care system, there may be more than one type of physical therapy practice. While PTs cannot prescribe medicine, they should be able to see someone with back pain without a referral and, in turn, refer a patient to a different practitioner if a different kind of care is needed.
“Some insurance companies will reimburse without a referral and some won’t. That probably will change.”
The motivation here is not just medical. It’s financial.
“University Hospital is trying a pilot program for top notch PTs to practice at the hospital without referrals. The advantage would be to cut down costs; a patient can go right to the PT without going through the physician for referral. Access is easier and less costly.”
Along with the entry level PT program, Schenkman opened a PhD program in rehabilitation science, with nine students at a time.
“We educate scientists who can study rehabilitation for people with neurological problems, with amputations from vascular problems and with total knee replacements. These scientists can help people function no matter what’s going on with them.
“There is now more recognition across the country that PT helps people with neurological disorders function better.”
Anything to keep those aches and pains — and lost productivity and income — at bay.
That’s the goal of Pat Grant, Margaret Schenkman and Karen Aarestad — not to mention, the physical therapists themselves.
Rabbi Hillel Goldberg may be reached via [email protected].
Copyright © 2014 by the Intermountain Jewish News
