David Nicholl’s recent blog posts on the awkward relationship between sex and physiotherapy made me think about another aspect of physiotherapy that may be affected by this issue. To work with me on this I contacted colleagues from the WCPT HIV/AIDS special interest group within the Network for HIV/AIDS, Oncology and Palliative Care. Physiotherapy, HIV and Stigma by Darren Brown (UK), Hellen Myezwa (South Africa), and Jenny Setchell (Australia) The purpose of this post is to highlight the stigma associated with HIV and its relevance in physiotherapy. This post also offers some resources for physiotherapists to increase their understanding of HIV and discusses possible ways forward for … [Read more...] about Physiotherapy, HIV and Stigma
The social model of disability and physiotherapy: Some personal reflections from Mike Oliver
Many of you will know of the Social Model of Disability, and some will have followed the work of its founder Mike Oliver. We approached Mike to write a post for criticalphysio blog a few weeks ago. This is Mike's response to the challenge of the social model of physiotherapy for future practice. It's more than thirty years this year since I published a book introducing the social model of disability onto an unsuspecting world (Oliver 1983). The idea behind it stemmed from the Fundamental Principles of Disability document first published in the mid-1970s (UPIAS 1976) which argued that we were not disabled by our impairments by the disabling barriers we faced in society. A couple of years … [Read more...] about The social model of disability and physiotherapy: Some personal reflections from Mike Oliver
Research update: Lifelong activity, chronic pain, therapatients, children’s embodiment, prostheses and body image
A few interesting new research studies have come out this week that I thought might be of interest. Each of these has some interesting connections with critical physiotherapy. Click on the links in the title of each article for more information. Characteristics of lifelong physically active older adults Sheryl L. Chatfield Abstract Most adults in developed countries fail to accrue enough regular physical activity to prevent or decrease the impact of chronic diseases associated with aging. I conducted semistructured interviews with 16 purposely selected older adults ranging in age from 53 to 70 years to explore the practices of successful lifelong adherents to physical activity. I … [Read more...] about Research update: Lifelong activity, chronic pain, therapatients, children’s embodiment, prostheses and body image