February 22, 2018

The Honorable Jack Bergman

414 Canon HOB
Washington, DC 20515

Dear Congressmen Bergman,

My name is Riley Ballard and I am a student physical therapist who resides in your district. I am writing
to you to share how physical therapy is a crucial element of solving the opioid crisis here in the United
States.

As a health care provider, almost all people that seek physical therapy are seeking treatment for some
type of pain and/or discomfort. Pain is a very difficult problem to treat and varies in the degree of which
it presents itself from person to person. Most people seek primary care to solve these problems with
hopes of some type of oral analgesic. Oral analgesics are extremely addictive, which many people are
not aware of. These short-term oral fixes are what are causing this opioid crisis because people are
looking for immediate relief without considering what are the cause, health risks, and the chronicity of
the pain.

APTA believes that overall pain and the opioid crisis has elements. There needs to be team approaches
and models that support access to non-pharmological treatment for pain such as physical therapy. Also,
health plans should try and eliminate co-pays and barriers that prevent person-centered care for
individuals.

Physical therapists are highly trained to not only assess and find out what is causing pain, but treating,
managing, and preventing the pain from happening in the future. We need to make it easier for
individuals to access therapeutic specialists like physical therapists and wean people from the norm of
thinking that pharmaceutical analgesics are the answer.

Thank you for considering my views.