**Physiotherapy and Mental Health**

Michel Probst

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Additional information is available at the end of the chapter

http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/67595

#### **Abstract**

Physiotherapy in mental health care and psychiatry is a recognized specialty within physiotherapy. It offers a rich variety of observational and evaluation tools as well as a range of interventions that are related to the patient's physical and mental health problems based on evidence‐based literature and a 50‐year history. Physiotherapy in mental health care addresses human movement, function, physical activity and exer‐ cise in individual and group therapeutic settings. Additionally, it connects the physical and mental health needs of humans. This chapter offers general reflections on mental health, the scope of physiotherapy in mental health care and physiotherapy research. Physiotherapy in mental health care and psychiatry can offer added and beneficial value to the treatment of people with mental health problems.

**Keywords:** psychomotor therapy, exercise, physical activity, body awareness, psychosomatic physiotherapy

#### **1. Introduction**

Mental health is a topic of growing interest in society. Various mental health organizations are engaged in the prevention, treatment and rehabilitation of persons with mental health problems and disorders. Unfortunately, physiotherapy is not always considered to be a sig‐ nificant profession within mental health because the role and the added value it offers can remain unclear among patients and other health care providers. However, physiotherapy is a recognized conventional profession within health care and can offer an extensive range of physical approaches (physical activity, exercise, movement, relaxation techniques and body and movement awareness). These approaches are aimed at symptom relief, the enhancement of self‐confidence and the improvement of quality of life. Additionally, they are relevant to rehabilitation programmes in mental health care.

© 2017 The Author(s). Licensee InTech. This chapter is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

The goal of this chapter is to present an overview of why physiotherapy in mental health is nec‐ essary and what it can offer to fulfil requests for help and to increase the quality of life of persons with mental health problems. It describes physiotherapy methods and their applications in the fields of mental health and psychiatry.
