Rehabilitation can sometimes be a lonely process for the patient. Feeling apprehensive about treatment procedures or gratified at reaching a therapy goal is usually an individual experience.

At the Providence St Peter Hospital’s new Orthopedic Healing Center in east Olympia, Wash, however, joint-rehabilitation patients encounter a unique treatment setting. In addition to their physical therapists (PTs), other patients with common ailments help them reach their rehabilitation goals. A growing nationwide trend, “joint camps,” as they are becoming known, provide patients with encouragement from other patients while going through postsurgical therapy.

These types of programs allow patients, such as 63-year-old Doug Grunenfelder, to successfully climb to the top of a wooden practice staircase—after having a total knee replacement surgery just 48 hours earlier—and be greeted by cheers and applause from other patients, as well as his PTs.1 Nearly every week at the Orthopedic Healing Center, patients undergoing elective replacements of knee or hip joints go through the steps of rehabilitation as a group, instead of facing the challenges alone.

The joint camps involve not only combined treatment sessions but also preoperative education programs, in which patients can discuss their concerns about surgery as a group, easing the tension and worry they might have about the upcoming procedure.

This developing trend of joint camp programs is poised to head only in one direction: forward. Not only do they offer treatment education to patients in a less-threatening format by providing group sessions, but they allow patients to be more comfortable with surgical procedures and the rehabilitation treatments. Improved recovery and patient compliance are just a couple of the benefits of such programs.

With the number of patients some physical therapy facilities treat in 1 week, or even 1 day, it may be hard to envision having the time to set up joint camp-type programs. However, taking the time to develop and incorporate a forum where your patients can talk with other patients who are experiencing similar pain or going through a similar rehabilitation program can supplement the education and treatment that you provide.

In addition to the clinical and professional skills that PTs have to treat physical pain, patients can help treat other patients’ mental anxiety about treatment or postsurgical physical activity. With patients helping patients, the discomfort on the road to recovery is sure to be less painful.

Reference

1. Jackson S. Don’t go at it along. The Olympian. Available at: http://159.54.227.3/apps/pbcs.dll/article?date=20050709&category=LIVING&ArtNo=50709037 Accessed July 15, 2005.