Eric Heinz — El Defensor Chieftain: Frank Jaramillo, right, a Socorro community member and former Socorro Consolidated Schools Board superintendent, has subsequent physical problems brought on by diabetes.
Pursuing a career in physical therapy was not something Melissa Montoya first envisioned.
Montoya, who began working at Positive Outcomes in Socorro this fall, was steered toward the career by experiences augmenting her decisions.
“Pediatrics wasn’t really the way I wanted to get into at first, but I’ve really enjoyed it,” Montoya said. “It’s fun, it’s vibrant and you are just always having to think on your feet.”
Plans can change at a moment’s notice, Montoya said, especially when working with children. When a strategy is developed to help children, they may not accept the initial changes.
“The kids, they baffle and amaze me in a very good way, and I just really enjoy giving people the tools to get back to normalcy,” Montoya said.
Montoya received her doctorate in physical therapy from the University of New Mexico and her bachelor’s in university studies with an emphasis in health promotion and social welfare from UNM. Montoya is a 2003 Socorro High School graduate.
She said her biggest target for helping people get better is social advocacy of health facilities and practices.
“In terms of advocacy, I had a daughter who was diagnosed with a brain tumor when she was 4, so I’m really big on health advocacy,” Montoya said, adding her daughter is now 9, and the tumor was benign, diagnosed as a craniopharyngioma brain tumor.
“Her experience really changed my path of education because I was really kind of on a medical school track,” Montoya said. “(Her daughter) had to have some physical therapy, post-operation. She just had some deficits. I was just astounded how much time a person gets to spend with their therapist in comparison to a physician.”
Montoya was raised in the San Antonio community south of Socorro where her family owns a farm. She said she contemplated what she wanted to pursue in her studies following some time off before going to college.
“I had so much more that I wanted to give and do; I didn’t want to just be a mom and work 9 to 5,” she said. “I juggled everything, and I was probably 21 when I came back to it.”
She has been trained as a generalist and neurological and in physiological therapeutics.
In terms of advocacy, she said “People can get really lost in the health system, so even if it’s like 15 minutes or a session, it’s about understanding what a person’s needs are.”
Some people who frequent Positive Outcomes don’t have phone service, and some may be “intimidated” to initiate the first steps of navigating health care options, she said.
Comprehensive tests are given to children to assess what issues they may have. Although Montoya said she prefers not to use the term “normal” as far as where a child may be in development, she said there are benchmarks from medical studies that may need to be addressed with a child.
Some of the work Montoya does involves early intervention with children from months old to 3 years old. If a child is not at a certain standard in their development, that’s where early-intervention programs can step in to assist.
She said she also provides therapy services for developmental, occupational, physical and speech
Positive Outcomes also services indigent people and really poor who can’t afford some of the services.
“We’re getting to treat some of those families who are at an environmental risk because of poverty,” Montoya said.
Positive Outcomes, a private business, does receive state and private insurance. Its members hope to disseminate information through family members and through the social advocacy Montoya prescribes.
“There are big family groups here in Socorro, and there are people within those families who have someone they reach out for information,” Montoya said. “So if we can reach one person, I know that ore information will spread.”
Montoya also works with people on more sensitive health issues that go beyond some of the most common physiological needs.
Sports physical therapy and running clinics, as well as additional women’s health programs and auxiliary services are expected transpire when Positive Outcomes constructs a new 3,800-square-foot building to complement its existing facilities.
Montoya’s thesis for her masters included physical therapy practices in tandem with pharmaceutical treatment.
“In patients with myoclonus post-anoxic brain injury, does rehabilitation therapies in conjunction with pharmaceutical therapy, compared to pharmaceutical therapy alone, increase functional outcomes?” stated on her thesis.
For more information about Positive Outcomes, call 575-838-0800.