By Charles B. Inlander

Caregiving usually involves much more than making meals, changing beds, and helping a loved one move around the house. One of the responsibilities a caregiver may have is selecting and overseeing the medical professionals and services a loved one requires.

An area that often causes confusion is the myriad of professionals who work with people needing rehabilitation services; services that help restore a person physically and mentally after an injury, stroke, or other medical problem. Here is a rundown of the major providers of rehabilitation care to help the savvy caregiver better understand what is available and what these different professionals do.

Physical Therapists

Physical therapists (PTs) are healthcare professionals who diagnose and treat people of all ages with medical problems or other health-related conditions that limit their abilities to move and perform functional activities in their daily lives.

Becoming a physical therapist requires having a master’s degree in physical therapy and passing a licensure examination. PTs can help people rehabilitate from injuries or diseases affecting muscles, joints, nerves, and bones. They work in hospitals, clinics, and rehab centers, and often will come to a person’s home as part of a care regimen. You may know people with repetitive motion injuries such as carpal tunnel syndrome; PTs have many good treatment protocols for injuries like this.

Occupational Therapist

Occupational therapists (OTs) are skilled in providing programs and therapies that help individuals achieve independence in all facets of their lives.

They do this by teaching the individual the skills necessary for independent daily living. Occupational therapists develop customized treatment plans to improve a person’s ability to perform daily activities, provide home and job site evaluations, give adaptive equipment recommendations along with usage training based on those evaluations, and provide guidance on all these matters to caregivers and other family members, among other things. At a minimum, an occupational therapist has a bachelor’s degree in the field, and many have master’s or doctorate degrees.

Speech Therapist

 A speech therapist is a specialist with training in the diagnosis and treatment of a variety of speech, voice, and language disorders. They work with people who are unable to make speech sounds at all or those who can’t make them clearly. This can include people who have stuttering problems, fluency and rhythm problems, inappropriate pitch, or problems with harsh voice and speech quality. Speech therapists have master’s degrees in speech therapy along with many hours of additional supervised clinical training. Often employed to help people recovering from strokes or other disabling conditions, a speech therapist can be essential in helping an individual regain their ability to communicate clearly.

Recreational Therapist

Recreational therapists are health care providers who use recreational therapy interventions to improve the functioning of individuals with illness or disabling conditions. Sometimes referred to as therapeutic recreational therapists, these professionals use a variety of techniques, including arts and crafts, animals, sports, games, dance and movement, drama, music, and community outings to treat and maintain the physical, mental, and emotional well-being of their clients. Qualified recreational therapists have at least a bachelor’s degree in the field.

Where to Find Rehabilitation Therapists

Generally, finding any of these rehabilitation therapists is easy. Call your local hospital or home care agency. Your loved one’s doctor is another good source of referral. And there are many Websites that have directories of these professionals. Enter the therapy type into a search line on your computer and you will be directed to a number of organizations providing these services.