Physical therapists aim to make difference in Woodlawn

Physical therapists in Hoover and Vestavia Hills are making themselves part of the solution to longtime health issues experienced by residents of Birmingham’s Woodlawn community.

TherapySouth, a physical therapy provider with offices throughout the metro Birmingham area, will provide not-for-profit services to people that need them starting in early September, said Steve Foster, president and CEO of TherapySouth.

“We anticipate that a large number of our patients will be uninsured based on our experiences in the area,” Foster said. “Based on their ability to pay, many of them will probably pay nothing.”

The Woodlawn facility will be co-managed by Dr. Alan Spooner, a partner at TherapySouth and the clinical director of TherapySouth Vestavia, and Dr. Wes James, a physical therapist at TherapySouth’s office on South Shades Crest Road. Spooner and James are two of TherapySouth’s most experienced physical therapists that will staff the facility initially and will add staff when the location receives more patients.

TherapySouth has provided pro bono services on Thursday afternoons for two years through Christ Health Center — a medical clinic for uninsured patients, but Foster felt the company could be doing more to help the Woodlawn community.

“We realized that there is more of a need in this community than what we can provide on Thursday afternoons,” Foster said. “We began to look at what the possibilities might be and started to look for space for a potential clinic.”

TherapySouth has several facilities located throughout Alabama, Georgia and Mississippi to provide convenience for its patients. The core goal of TherapySouth is to provide “hands-on care, close to a patient’s home or work.”

The new clinic will be based in a building leased by the Woodlawn Foundation, an organization committed to revitalizing Woodlawn and ending poverty there that offers the community education, mixed-income housing and other services.

The same building also houses Woodlawn Kitchen and Naughty but Nice Kettle Corn Co.

Dr. Rex Record, CEO of Christ Health Clinic, believes the new clinic is a huge win for the Woodlawn community.

“There aren’t any physical therapy providers that are close to us, and proximity matters,” Record said.

Christ Health Center provides several medical services, including medical care, dental care, pharmacy services and counseling services, but has no physical therapy services.

“We have a lot of patients who struggle, especially with pain and function,” Record said. “Most of the medicines for these conditions have particularly weak evidence, but physical therapy works, especially when you have a physical therapist who cares enough to know you and touch you and get involved with your healing the way that therapists at TherapySouth do.”

The fact that services will be provided in an area where people have limited financial resources will not determine the level of care they will receive, Foster said.

“The quality of the care will be the same care that we give at all of our clinics,” Foster said. “We hope to grow it and for it to become a clinic that requires at least two to three full-time therapists there to meet the needs of that community.”

The new facility reflects the company’s core values of faith, service and giving, said Katie Ratliff, communications director for TherapySouth. Ratliff is fairly new to the company, being hired in August 2020, but noticed when applying for the position how important the core values are to Foster and his company.

“Before I knew anything about the company, the core values were probably the most prominent thing throughout the process,” Ratliff said. “I think that it’s something that we strive for at all of our clinics and really want our patients to know about and embody.”