AmbergrisCaye.com Home Forums Belize Life Living in Belize Physical Therapist on Ambergris Caye

My wife and I bought a condo on Ambergris Caye last summer. We plan on moving down from SW Florida as soon as we can, hopefully within a year. We are pretty young (47,48) and my wife might want to work some when we relocate, I'm retired and don't feel the same lol. Anyway, The question is, she is a licensed Physical Therapist, and has been for over 25 years. Is there a need for a traveling, PT on the island, going from home to home as needed. More commonly knows as Home Care. If anyone has any insight on this topic please let me know. It's not of great importance but we are just putting out feelers. Thanks so much!!

Welcome to Belize! Your wife will need to obtain a work permit and a license to practice in Belize (this may be the tricky part). There is a FT Chiropracter here (and a PT one as well) that stays pretty busy in the high season. His fees are half of what they would be in the states.....

That being said, the market on the Island (with aging baby boomers, etc) would most likely support at least a part time PT (private pay as there is no Medicare coverage here)....

Thank you for the reply. She would only want to work part time anyway, so we can enjoy the quiet relaxed life we are looking forward to. We knew about the private pay and we do realize the fees would be quite different. I look forward to any more information anyone would have. Thanks again SnoopysMom, you were very helpful. Would you happen to know where she would get her license? We can go next month or maybe a web site to explore. Ok, that's enough questions for now. Happy day to all

If you call it rehab training/therapy/massage you won't need a formal PT/medical certification - just a trade's license which is a perfunctory exercise.
There is a wonderful PT/Acupuncture guy in BC ...... Harold Zuniga is his name. He was trained in the US Navy for PT and in SF for acupuncture. He might be able to enlighten you on details of how to make it all work.

Thank you Diane, great information!!! We will try to locate him right away. We are so looking forward to the move south.

That's good to know, Diane! I am actually a Registered Respiratory Therapist (experienced in Pulmonary Rehabilitation) by trade and haven't even considered that I could work in that fashion...

Dr Teresa used to bring a physical therapist and respiratory therapist over from the mainland. I am sure there is a pretty strong demand for such services here.

I love all the input. Thanks everyone. My hope is to move down in 2013, so all this information is awesome.