I suppose if you’re going to start a blog about physiotherapy the first question you need to ask is ‘why are there so few good critical blogs about the profession?’ It can’t be because blogs are so new that we haven’t caught up on the trend yet, or that physiotherapists are any more technophobic than anyone else in hyperspace. Nor can we say that physiotherapy is any less worthy than medicine, nursing, psychology, acupuncture or osteopathy, or any of the other health professions, to close critical scrutiny. Granted, it’s not a particularly common thing for people within their own professions to write critically about their work, and even less so to think that this should be available to … [Read more...] about Who writes a physiotherapy blog anyway?
Review of the Critical Physiotherapy Forum held at the recent APA Conference
This post from CPN member Amy Hiller was recently published in the Australian Physiotherapy Association's InMotion magazine (link) and is reproduced with the kind permission of the APA. There is a link to the original pdf here. The critical physiotherapy forum aimed to provide a platform for thought and discussion about the practice of physiotherapy, highlighting philosophical, historical, ethical and social aspects of the profession. The theme of the session was consideration for ‘how the profession is, was and can be’. This was the first known conference session dedicated to ideas related to critical physiotherapy anywhere in the world – very exciting and innovative for the … [Read more...] about Review of the Critical Physiotherapy Forum held at the recent APA Conference
Wither ‘Quality of Life’?
This post from our CPN Exec member Barbara Gibson just appeared on The AMS Phoenix Project site (link) and is cross-posted here. I recently attended my first AMS Phoenix Project Conference as a new grant recipient. It was a treat to be amongst a talented group of people who are collectively dedicated to infusing compassionate care into healthcare, and who are doing so from diverse perspectives. As someone who identifies as a critical researcher I was especially intrigued by some of the comments provided by speaker Arno Kumagai related to the problem of evaluating compassion. Dr Kumagai mentioned a somewhat disturbing trend in healthcare towards measuring compassionate care utilizing … [Read more...] about Wither ‘Quality of Life’?
The cult of the hero
Having talked with people about my last blog entry (Exercising our demons, 16th May 2010), one of the most interesting conversations centred around physiotherapy’s fascination with its heros; the ‘big names’ in the profession that are made famous by their inventions and innovations. The last blog entry touched on this only briefly, and only in the sense that I expressed my dislike for the naked evangelizing of some of the speakers at our conference. But there is a bigger point here that deserves consideration, because - as a couple of my colleagues pointed out - physiotherapy really does suffer, at times, from the cult of the hero. … [Read more...] about The cult of the hero
Exercising our demons
I’ve just returned from the biennial NZSP conference held over the last two days in Auckland, and I find myself, once again, disheartened by some of the ideas my colleagues are promoting. Years ago, when I was a junior practitioners and an even more novice qualitative researcher, I would go to physiotherapy conferences hoping to hear the brightest and the best, speaking about cutting edge practice. But rarely did I hear anything about people as people, social theories, politics, disability rights, gender issues, etc. There was never even the slightest mention of anything qualitative to break up the dry diet of quantitative facts and figures. (Those were the days when physiotherapy was … [Read more...] about Exercising our demons
Do you need a four-year degree to tell someone to stop smoking and do more exercise?
One of the biggest growth areas for physiotherapists in the coming years years will be the management of chronic illness. The numbers of people now living with conditions that were once relatively rare is quite staggering, and they are becoming more complex. A report released last week by the Australian Health Policy Collaboration (link) has once again highlighted the need for us to take a society-wide approach to managing the threats posed by conditions like heart disease, diabetes, cancer and respiratory illnesses, through a concerted effort to tackle the 'upstream' causes: alcohol consumption, sedentary behaviour, high salt intake, smoking, etc. Obesity, diabetes, hypertension and … [Read more...] about Do you need a four-year degree to tell someone to stop smoking and do more exercise?
On openings and closings, choice and change
From Brian Massumi, via Mary Zournazi, via Prof Liz Smythe Zournazi, M. (2002). Hope. New philosophies for change. Annandale, NSW, Austalia: Pluto Press. … [Read more...] about On openings and closings, choice and change