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How Can I Get My Mother-in-law to Do Her PT Exercises in Between Therapists Visits?

A fellow caregiver asked...

My mother-in-law is still recuperating from a broken hip she got when she fell in October 2011. Sjhe has mild to moderate dementia. Her Ortho-doctor prescribed P.T. which is now on an out-patient status. She will not cooperate with her live-in care-giver to do her exercises in between visits. She tells the p.t. she will do them, but she doesn't & her therapy will no longer be covered by medicare if she does not show progress.

Expert Answer

Laura Cheney, a physical therapist who specializes in geriatrics, graduated with honors from the University of California at San Francisco in 2000. She loves her job working as the sole physical therapist at a premier life-care facility in San Francisco. She has written articles and lectured extensively on fall prevention and other issues relevant to the aging experience. As a registered yoga teacher, she teaches yoga, meditation, and other mindfulness techniques to seniors -- helping them expand their repertoire for coping with stress, pain, and illness in the later years.

The disappointing but realistic answer is that you cannot MAKE her do her exercises. I know this is hard to hear. You want more than anything for her to do everything possible to keep her pain free and mobile. Here are a couple suggestions that may help. Look into exercise classes through your local senior center. these would probably be appropriate and the guidance and social aspect may be encouraging. Water classes are especially good if they are available in your area. The other thing is that you can ask your caregiver to do more exercise based activity with your MIL without telling her they are "PT exercises." No one really likes to do exercise for the sake of exercise. So ....things like...take more walks. Have a destination. Have her walk out to get the mail with her caregiver. Have her walk to the neighbors house or park the car further away from the store so she has to walk further in the parking lot. Make sure your caregiver is trained to help to keep her safe but not to over help her by doing too many things for her. .I am not sure of your MIL's functional level--but the more she can get up and down from a chair by herself etc--the stronger she will stay. I hope this helps.