THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT 
              Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: Wednesday, July 3, 1996               TAG: 9607020299
SECTION: MILITARY NEWS           PAGE: A12  EDITION: FINAL 
SOURCE: BY CHARLENE CASON, STAFF WRITER 
                                            LENGTH:   37 lines

PHYSICAL THERAPY TECHNICIAN: DON'T TELL HIM YOU CAN'T DO IT

If you want to try the patience of ``Mitch'' Mitchell, just get hurt, go see him for physical therapy, then say you can't do the work to get better. Nothing makes him more frustrated than patients who won't try to help themselves.

And nothing gives Mitchell more pleasure in his work than to help people who are trying to work through the pain of a sports injury, an accident, surgery or cardiac rehabilitation.

``My job is to get people moving, to help them work hard through the pain,'' said the Alabama native. ``My job is to be compassionate.''

He knows what it's like to go through physical therapy because he's had two knee surgeries and has been a PT patient himself three times during his 11 years in the military.

Mitchell had four months of academic classes, plus two months of on-the-job training, to become a physical therapy technician in the Navy. He has also completed the requirements for certification as a civilian physical therapy assistant.

He has seen many changes in the field since he first trained as a physical therapy technician. One of the biggest changes has been in the attitude of patients, he said.

``People used to think coming up here for physical therapy meant getting tortured, getting put on the rack,'' Mitchell said from the seventh floor of the Portsmouth Naval Medical Center.

``But we do a lot of educating now, so I think they have a better understanding of what to expect, of what physical therapy is all about.'' ILLUSTRATION: Graphic

Photo

ON THE JOB

[For complete graphic, please see microfilm] by CNB