The month of October serves as National Physical Therapy Month, focusing to increase awareness of the field and its multi-faceted purposes. The APTA chooses a theme each year to represent the campaign, ranging from low back pain, aging, balance, to sports injury prevention. The focus for this year’s campaign is to increase awareness of seeking Physical Therapy as a safe alternative to the use of prescription opioids for pain management.

Although the treatment of opioids is appropriate in certain medical treatments, their use has become a major risk and crisis in our society. According to the CDC, every day over 1,000 individuals are treated in emergency departments for misusing prescription opioids. Physical Therapy is considered a safe and effective treatment plan for managing pain by focusing on patient mobility through the use of joint manipulation, joint and soft tissue mobilization, and intramuscular therapy. When a patient begins experiencing low back, hip, knee, or osteoarthritis pain, Physical Therapists can provide indispensable treatment plans instead of opioid use.