President’s Message
(February 2019)
INAPTA Members,
Flying home, after attending the Combined Sections Meeting (CSM) of the American Physical Therapy Association, I reflected on the energy that more than 16,000 physical therapists, physical therapist assistants and students of physical therapy brought to the meeting in Washington, DC. We truly are better together and can accomplish more to support our profession and the patients for whom we care. This not only applies on a national level, but also on a state level.
As many of you are aware, the INAPTA Legislative Committee has been working for the past two years on updating the Indiana Physical Therapy Practice Act. This update will occur through the introduction of legislation in the Indiana Legislature this year. Senator Messmer is the author of our bill in the Senate, Senate Bill 586, and Representative Frizzell will author House Bill 1197. We are initially focusing on the Senate, and have been working diligently with Senator Messmer, along with meeting with multiple groups who have expressed concern about the updates to our Practice Act. Those of you who have senators in the Senate Health and Provider Services Committee have received e-mails requesting that you contact your Senator and ask him or her to support SB 586. If you have not contacted your Senator, I sincerely ask that you take 5 minutes to do this. Every communication that a Senator receives will influence the decision that he or she makes regarding SB 586. Every single voice counts! Once SB 586 moves out of committee, we will be contacting you all to ask your senators to support this bill being heard in the Senate.
Many of you are signed up to attend the 2019 PT Day at the Statehouse on Tuesday, February 5th. If you have not signed up yet, it is not too late! Registration is open until 9:00 am on Friday, February 1. The plan for the day is for registration to open at 10:00 am, and the programming will start at 11:00 am. During the programming, you will hear from our State Legislative Chair, Pauline Flesch, PT, MPS, about the updates to our Practice Act and from the legislators who are supporting our bill. Stay with us for lunch and take the opportunity to meet with your Senator or House Representative. We will be sending information in the next 1-2 days to those signed up for our event on February 5th on how to connect with your Senator or House Representative to set up a lunch visit.
Thank you for being a member of INAPTA, and I hope that you might be able to join the 325 who have already signed up for the 2019 PT Day at the Statehouse.
Emily Slaven, PT, PhD
President, INAPTA