Join live to submit your questions to the speakers, Sarah Gallagher PT, DPT, Ellen Morello, Samantha Dutrow Norwood, PT, DPT, Todd Norwood, PT, DPT, and Christin Tate, PT, DPT.

This is a 60-minute event.

To view this live online event and submit questions you must be a Virtual NEXT registrant at least 48 hours in advance (see details above to purchase Virtual NEXT). A recording of this session will be made available for all Virtual NEXT registrants. Each live online event has a limited capacity of participants on a first come, first served basis.

By 2030, there will be more than 21 million cancer survivors in the United States, representing nearly 7% of the population. Cancer treatment is provided over a protracted period of months or years, and for individuals with advanced stages of cancer this may be the remainder of their lifespan. Each medical therapy employed has side effects that negatively impact physical function. Through the protracted continuum of cancer care this leads to an aggregate burden of impairment and functional decline. Rehabilitation plays a substantial role in reducing this burden, and in enabling optimal function in individuals living with cancer. However, the reactive framework prevalent in today’s practice of physical therapy is ill-suited to meet the needs of this population. In the last decade a tremendous interdisciplinary effort has shifted cancer rehabilitation toward a prospective surveillance model to provide early, ongoing rehabilitative services to individuals with cancer and mitigate anticipated functional decline associated with treatment. While this model is moving forward as a standard in care, our profession should consider the opportunities that proactive risk stratification and surveillance can afford to other chronic disease states in which functional morbidity is anticipated, and in which prospective rehabilitation may prevent functional decline.

Opioid literacy in physical therapy education and practice is paramount, and complements APTA’s Mission Statement: "Building a community that advances the profession of physical therapy to improve the health of society." Supporting patient health and wellness efforts is the APTA Code of Ethics for the Physical Therapist Principle 8: "Physical therapists shall participate in efforts to meet the health needs of people locally, nationally, or globally," and APTA Standards of Ethical Conduct for the Physical Therapist Assistant Standard 8: "Physical therapist assistants shall participate in efforts to meet the health needs of people locally, nationally, or globally." The recently adopted APTA House of Delegates position RC 62-19: Naloxone Availability Where Physical Therapy Services Are Provided further supports the need for advocacy, education, and training.