Sept. 15 – Balance Awareness Week

Balance Awareness Week is a recognized week nationally that was started by the Vestibular Disorders Association. The goal of Balance Awareness Week is to reduce the time it takes to diagnose a vestibular disorder.

Vestibular disorders can sometimes cause feelings of vertigo and dizziness, which hinder coordination, making it hard to balance. The Vestibular Disorders Association has started this awareness week to “help patients recognize the symptoms of a vestibular disorder and urge them to seek help from a professional specialist”.

The vestibular system includes the parts of the inner ear and brain that process the sensory information involved with controlling balance and eye movements. If disease, aging, or injury damages these processing areas, vestibular disorders can result. Vestibular disorders can also result from or be worsened by genetic or environmental conditions, or occur for unknown reasons.

People who experience vestibular disorders may be faced with symptoms such as feelings of vertigo and dizziness, imbalance and spatial disorientation, vision disturbance, hearing changes, or cognitive and/or psychological changes and everyday activities may become difficult. These symptoms can often affect every day activities that many take for granted.

Tidewater Physical Therapy offers an in-depth vestibular rehabilitation therapy program lead by Senior Physical Therapist, Vestibular Therapist and Clinical Director, Craig Joachimowski, PT, OCS, CHT, of their Seaford clinic. Other clinical directors and senior physical therapists at Tidewater Physical Therapy who are qualified to treat vestibular disorders are: Jenna Tryon, DPT (Lewes North clinic), Susan Pender, MPT (Georgetown clinic), Rich Recicar, MPT (Milton clinic), and Billy Hamilton, DPT, CHT (Ocean Pines clinic).

Joachimowski describes what it is like to diagnose and treat a vestibular disorder; “Treating a patient with complaints of dizziness, difficulty walking, or problems with keeping their balance is like solving a very complex puzzle. These issues could be the result of an inner ear dysfunction or a central nervous system disease or dysfunction. My job is to help determine whether the issue is coming from the inner ear (vestibular) or the brain, and then to develop a treatment plan to resolve those issues.”