Consider Physical Therapy Before Your Dad Gets Back to Gardening
Gardening: Physical Therapy Media PA
In one study of over 300 elderly gardeners, researchers found several interesting things. People who gardened at least four hours a week were found to gain longevity, likely due to the lowered risk of heart disease from regular activity. People who gardened also tended to be more social. It can be the fact that people have extra produce to give away, so they’ll talk to neighbors or take the extra vegetables to the local food shelf. It can be having family members stopping by to help in the garden.
Before your dad gets into the garden, you should make sure he’s able to walk around without losing his balance on uneven ground. This is where it’s helpful to have regular physical therapy.
What is Physical Therapy?
Physical therapy is a branch of healthcare that aids with bone, muscle, and joint movements. It helps with balance, endurance, and flexibility, too.
A physical therapist will assess your dad’s mobility, determine what is most needed to get him up and moving around, and use methods like physical exercise, stretches, massage, and electrostimulation to ease pain and improve quality of life.
Gardening Tips For Less Physical Effort
As a physical therapist helps your dad build strength, there are things you can do to make it easier for him to get back into gardening. Start by looking into raised beds. If he doesn’t have to bend down as far, it’s easier to tend to his plants. A raised bed garden is also helpful as it’s less prone to weeds creeping in from the neighboring lawn. If you add benches near the raised beds, he’ll have a place to sit and rest while he drinks some water or reapplies his sunscreen.
If he will have a traditional garden, a garden cart with a built-in seat helps him transport the tools he needs for gardening. It also helps to have a knee pad that has arms he can use for support while standing up or kneeling.
Make it easy to water his plants without dragging a hose. Set up rain barrels under his gutters. At the bottom of the barrel put in thin tubing that is laid out ground level with the plants. You can even bury them slightly to allow you to mow without having to move them.
When they need watering, he just needs to open the spigots. He won’t use up his well water or city water in the process. It’s a helpful way to conserve resources and ensure his plants have the water they need to thrive.
Arrange physical therapy sessions after talking to your dad’s doctor about his mobility issue. Whether he has arthritis and struggles with joint pain when up and active or takes medications that make him dizzy, physical therapy services provide the exercises and therapeutic treatments your dad needs to be active.
If you or an aging loved one are considering Physical Therapy in Media, PA please contact the caring staff at True Direct Home Health Care today.
Doc, as he is called by everyone - staff, patients and clients - first experienced home health care and hospice care while as a colleg student at King's College as he cared for his mother every day while she first battled COPD and then lung cancer. It was during this time that he came to understand that caring for a patient was more than just clinical expertise.
"Admittedly, my strongest attribute is my communication skills and the simple fact that I love to help people. Even the smallest thing you can do for someone really can mean so much to them long term. In fact, it could change them forever. That's what providing quality personal home health care should be all about."
In his spare time, he cooks for homeless shelters and children's music and arts events. He also is highly involved in his local youth sports soccer academy as a coach and Board member.
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