A few months ago a new international group was formed by people interested in the history of physiotherapy. The International Physiotherapy History Association (IPHA) is a collection of clinicians, policy-makers, researchers, students and teachers, who are interested in bringing physiotherapy history alive. The group will be working over the next few years to promote the history of physiotherapy as a resource for present-day practice, professional decision-making, management and leadership, teaching, and regulation; to celebrate our past; challenge the profession to learn from its history; and support the safe archiving for future generations. But why now? Well perhaps the group … [Read more...] about Are you interested in the history of physiotherapy?
Extended members
One of the things I like most about the CPN is that its doing some pretty big things (international collaborations, book projects, a WCPT Focused Symposium next year, etc.), but its still small enough so that you get to see what other people are doing. And some of the things other people are doing are incredible. Anna Rajala, for instance, has been a CPN member since the early days, and during that time has been writing and teaching about history of medicine, mental health, disability, and political and moral philosophy. She's done a masters degree in philosophy, politics and economics of health and her dissertation on Hegel’s dialectics of recognition and ethics in dementia was awarded … [Read more...] about Extended members
Onwards and upwards
Last week's blogpost by Tracy Bury from WCPT brought to an end another hectic 30 Days of September campaign. It's the third such campaign we've run since the Network began in 2014, and they're a lot of fun, but also a lot of hard work. So thank you to all of the members, new and old, who contributed to last month's campaign. We decided this year to focus on ideas that motivated us to be critical-thinking physiotherapists, and hopefully many of you will have been inspired by what you read. One member wrote to me a few days ago to say, "I’m loving 30days. My reading list for the next 12 months is set." We hope you all had something like that kind of reaction. The 30DoS campaign … [Read more...] about Onwards and upwards
Why do things need to work?
One of the most enjoyable things about in the Critical Physiotherapy Network is the license it gives you to ask questions about the profession that other people might find ridiculous. There's a long history of the study of stupidity and idiocy in philosophy (see Shaw 2016, for example), and I'd like to think we make some small contribution to that with our Network. Look at our Objectives and you will see that it is part of our constitution to develop 'a culture & appreciation for the exploration of all views that deviate from conventional thought & practice in physiotherapy' (Object #4, link). So in the spirit of asking ridiculous questions, I'll confess that for some time now … [Read more...] about Why do things need to work?
Critical physiotherapy podcast
Late last year I spent a very nice hour with CPN member and passionate physiotherapy-reformer Paul Lagerman, otherwise known as The Naked Physio (link). Paul's website has been using blogging, social media and podcasting as a way to debate our profession for a while now, and he has just published a conversation we had about the past, present and future of the profession and the role that people in the Critical Physiotherapy Network are playing in transforming the profession. You can hear the entirety of the podcast here or through Paul's site. … [Read more...] about Critical physiotherapy podcast
365 days of the Critical Physiotherapy Network
The CPN is 1 year old today. To celebrate how far we've come in such a short space of time, I thought it might be timely to look back on some of the things we've achieved as a Network: The Network started with an email to six people who had talked informally about forming a group of like-minded critical thinkers in physiotherapy. This email snowballed until we had 24 people signed up by the the end of the first week and more were added each week as people heard about us. People were saying that the group was an idea who's time had come, and it quickly became clear that there were dozens of physiotherapists who thought 'differently' about physiotherapy, all looking for a safe place to … [Read more...] about 365 days of the Critical Physiotherapy Network
Celebrating the Critical Physiotherapy Network's 1st birthday
In two days time it will officially one year since we formed the Critical Physiotherapy Network (CPN). When we started the group, we seriously thought that there were about a dozen physiotherapists around the world who would be interested in participating, so the growth of the Network has been nothing short of remarkable. The CPN now has 250 members in 28 countries spread over four continents. We have members in Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, Denmark, Dubai, England, Germany, Hong Kong, India, Ireland, Israel, Malaysia, Malta, Netherlands, New Zealand, Nigeria, Norway, Palestine, Portugal, Scotland, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey, USA and Wales. Within the network … [Read more...] about Celebrating the Critical Physiotherapy Network's 1st birthday