"There's a great, probably apocryphal story about the noted psychotherapist Wilfred Bion (pron. bee-on), who when confronted by a patient who wanted simple answers to her problems, said: "I don't know why you're getting so angry, I wasn't trying to help you". Such stories seem at odds to the way you should behave as a healthcare worker, perhaps because we are conditioned to think that our response to patient's problems should always be to look for a solution; to fix or cure them; to return them to (their) normal; to rehabilitate or restore them. Our whole approach to physiotherapy is especially teleological, with a defined goal or end in mind.* And we define our success by outcome … [Read more...] about Physiotherapy fix-ation
Divorce rates among physiotherapists
This isn't the kind of material this blog usually deals with, but there's something fascinating in this recent report from Nathan Yau at flowingdata.com. The report looks at divorce statistics across different occupational groups and shows some interesting things about physical therapists in the United States. How much the findings can be extrapolated to other populations is debatable, but my sense is that there are some sociological principles at play here: perhaps about the linkage between one's profession, education and income and life fulfillment, that needs to be considered. The first set of data looks at divorce rates by occupation, and physical therapists come out with some of … [Read more...] about Divorce rates among physiotherapists
Beyond The Pedestrian: Walking in Research, Theory, Practice and Performance
26th July 2018 Dept of Geography and Planning, The University of Liverpool Keynote Speaker: Professor Dee Heddon, University of Glasgow A one-day interdisciplinary event focused on walking research, practice and culture. Our definition of walking is welcoming to all kinds of bodies and includes orthotics, sticks, wheels and other assistive technologies. This symposium is open to students, academics and anyone else interested in exploring the more than pedestrian. We invite proposals for 20 minute paper presentations, but are also open to creative and innovative methods. We are also interested in facilitating a small number of walks. Subjects covered may include, but are not limited … [Read more...] about Beyond The Pedestrian: Walking in Research, Theory, Practice and Performance
Other ways of looking at others
One of the biggest perks of my job - and there are many - is the opportunity to work with physiotherapists who are looking for new ways to think about their profession. These are some of the people who are offering insights into how physiotherapy might develop in the future, and one theme of some of this work that's emerged in recent years has been around the ethical care of others. What's most interesting for me about this work is how it's inverting the way we've traditionally thought about others, placing the ethics of care before our knowledge of them and their world. Ethics preceding ontology if you will. Here are three examples. Since the start of the year I've been … [Read more...] about Other ways of looking at others
Call for papers: Managing uncertainty in healthcare
Managing uncertainty in healthcare: Revisiting and advancing sociological contributions 27th Sociology of Health & Illness Monograph Editors: Nicola Mackintosh and Natalie Armstrong One of the most pervasive themes in the sociology of medical knowledge and its critiques is the role of uncertainty in clinical practice. This 27th Sociology of Health and Illness Monograph will revisit this enduring phenomenon in the context of changes over the recent past, notably the emergence of the construct of 'overdiagnosis', increasing public anxiety over health and risk of illness, shifting patient expectations on the benefits of scientific innovation and the reliability of clinical … [Read more...] about Call for papers: Managing uncertainty in healthcare
A more complex view of patient self-management
The idea that people should take more personal responsibility for their health is nothing new. For more than 40 years now, we have been promoting the belief that self-care is obviously good and necessary, and that people should be less passive and less dependent. This view has been particularly prevalent in physiotherapy, where the shift away from so called 'passive' modalities has been accompanied by an equally powerful set of discourses pushing behaviour change and an activity-is-best agenda. We've written about some of the dangers of this approach elsewhere (Nicholls et al, 2018), but a recent paper published in the journal Sociology of Health and Illness adds weight to the belief … [Read more...] about A more complex view of patient self-management
A call for critical papers
The Journal of Humanities in Rehabilitation’s new section, Critical Research and Perspectives is dedicated to publishing papers and other works that employ critical perspectives on rehabilitation. The creation of this focused section of JHR presents an exciting opportunity to showcase rigorous critical rehabilitation research and scholarship. See the full call for papers here. We seek submissions that explore the application of critical, post-structural, or postmodern theories (broadly defined) to advance understandings of rehabilitation—including original research, think pieces, and theoretical discussions of the philosophical basis of rehabilitation practices, education, and/or … [Read more...] about A call for critical papers
