Adapted physical activity teacher: a little-known profession

An adapted physical activity teacher uses physical and sporting activities to promote the integration and well-being of people with permanent or temporary disabilities. Professionals we don’t talk about much, explains Martin Ducret.

Martin Ducret, doctor and journalist at Doctor’s Daily, talk to us today about teachers of adapted physical activity (EAPA), a little-known profession that is inseparable from “sport-health”.

franceinfo: Why tell us about this profession in particular?

Martin Ducret: Because on November 13, the Senate adopted an amendment which plans to finance, on an experimental basis for 2 years, adapted physical activity (APA) programs for patients treated for cancer. Initially, this coverage by Social Security should have been extended to chronic illnesses, such as diabetes, but the executive, for budgetary reasons, decided otherwise.

This regrettable political decision made me want to highlight professionals, about whom we don’t talk much, who are essential for supervising adapted physical activity: teachers of adapted physical activity (EAPA). And be careful, they should not be confused with physiotherapists, occupational therapists, physical trainers, or sports coaches.

What does this profession consist of?

“Well, an ‘APA teacher’ will use physical activity as a tool to improve the health of a patient who has a chronic illness or disability”explained Aude-Marie Foucaut, Teacher Researcher in STAPS at Sorbonne Paris Nord University, and coordinator of the work Physical activity prescriptions.

Thanks to various activities chosen by the patient – ​​exercise bike, table tennis, fun exercises of all kinds – he establishes an individualized program, over several weeks, adapted to the patient’s state of health, to get him moving, build muscle, and teach him to know his body better.

The goal is to empower him as much as possible so that he continues to do physical activity in the long term.

How can a patient benefit from a program by an adapted physical activity teacher?

It could be in a rehabilitation center or in a hospital, like in the exercise and sports department at the Hôtel-Dieu hospital in Paris where I work, but unfortunately there are still too few services like this, in France.

To find an APA teacher near you, you can already ask your doctor or a health professional, or go directly to the website of the Ministry of Sports, which lists all the sports-health centers in the area. There is also a directory of APA teachers, available on the website of the French society of professionals in adapted physical activity.