 Ocean County, NJ -- Susan Carlson has been a physical therapist for 32 years, with 20 of those spent in home health care. Even after several decades out in the field, she remains “touched” and “made humble” by the patients she helps – or helps to help themselves.
“We’ll walk into a patient’s house and invariably the person will say, ‘I want my life back. I just want to be able to get to the store or bingo,’” Ms. Carlson says. A Brielle, NJ, resident, she began working for Community Medical Center Home Health and Van Dyke Hospice and Palliative Care Center, affiliates of Barnabas Health located in Toms River, in 1995. This past August, Ms. Carlson was promoted to the position of Supervisor of Rehabilitation Services. She decided to become a physical therapist after her own experience with a therapist who treated her after she suffered a water-skiing injury at age 16.
As a physical therapist, Ms. Carlson says she feels “a deep sense of responsibility” to maximize a patient’s functioning and hopefully allow them to return to their prior level of independence. “Every case you walk into, you have to have a fresh eye and say, ‘What am I going to do for this person today to make his or her life better?,’” she says. “And I actually have a career that allows me to do that.”
Ms. Carlson currently spends most of her time in Ocean County, mainly helping the area’s senior population. One of her recent patients, a 100-year-old woman, wanted to be able to put her garbage out on the curb. By helping her transition from her reliance on a cane, Ms. Carlson was able to help her accomplish her goal.
For more information about Community Medical Center Home Health or Van Dyke Hospice and Palliative Care Center, please call 732-818-6800 or visit www.barnabashealth.org and choose the “Extended Care” tab.
Date: October 2010
[ top ] [ back to news index ] |
