WHETHER it is recovery from spinal injury or surgery, or from a broken finger, physiotherapists are likely to be involved in a patient's path back to fitness.

The profession has an ever-increasing role to play in the recovery process, with a wider range of patients benefiting from its expertise than ever before.

This week is Physiotherapy Week, run by the Chartered Society of Physiotherapy with the aim of raising public awareness of the role the profession plays in sustaining health and well-being.

In Gwent, there is physiotherapy input in most hospitals and there is little of the body that cannot benefit from the physiotherapist's expertise.

"We see a lot of spine and neck patients, and deal with a lot of shoulder pain and low back pain. We tend to see both acute and chronic problems with these areas," said Dan Jones, a physiotherapist working at the Royal Gwent.

"There are also patients who have had fractured ankles, knee replacements, soft tissue injuries, arthritic joints. It can go right down to the little finger, because something like that would be treated in the hand unit.

"There is also a physiotherapist specialising in women's health. We have people who work with patients recovering from a stroke or who are living with conditions like multiple sclerosis or motor neurone disease."

Physiotherapists can also be found in respiratory medicine where, for instance, techniques can be applied to help patients keep their lungs and airways as clear of phlegm as possible.

There are physiotherapists working with children, particularly at places such as Eveswell clinic in Newport. They are also active in cardiac care, promoting exercise and healthy living, and in cancer care where physiotherapy is used for helping pain relief and improving quality of life. Even mental health uses physiotherapy, as Becky Martin, another member of the Royal Gwent team, explained.

"We have people working in mental health with young adults to try to get them active. A lot of that is to do with motivation, promoting activity. There is research which shows that physical activity can stimulate a sense of well-being," she said.

The aim is to get patients back to normal activity and body function, or as close as possible, or, as Dan Jones said, "to enable them to carry on with their lives."

"Here (the Royal Gwent's physiotherapy unit) we try to get people back to a high level of activity. With others, such as stroke patients, it might just be a case of getting a patient back to a level of activity and function where they can deal with daily living," he said.

This week at the Royal Gwent, the physiotherapy department has been busy promoting itself.

A leaflet has been produced explaining how patients how can get access to physiotherapy, and team members have been running a stand in accident and emergency and in orthopaedic clinics.

"A lot of people have heard of physiotherapy in sport, but that's about it. They don't realise how big a part of healthcare it is.

"We work in acute wards all over the Royal Gwent and in other hospitals," said Ms Martin.

"There is a need to dispel a few myths, like the one about it just being a bucket and sponge activity, the old football image. It is also a myth that physiotherapy is a poor relation to medicine and that you don't need many qualifications to become a physiotherapist.

"There are new career paths in this profession which enable physiotherapists to specialise in different fields and the consultant grade gives people an extra dimension."