"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
New: Openings
Physiotherapists, like all orthodox western health professionals, love endings. Think about it. Every time we begin a new patient assessment, we have got one eye on the patient's discharge. We love goals and outcome measures so that we can measure when milestones have been reached and end-points achieved. It seems every opening to a new episode of care comes with an implicit expiration date. Naturally, funders are eager that packages of care are limited and treatments don't extend on into days, weeks and months, and we seem to have accepted the inherent logic that care must have term limits. Time-limited care suits acute illnesses and injuries that are, by definition, … [Read more...] about New: Openings
Critical Physiotherapy returns
If you're in the Northern Hemisphere, today probably marks your return to work day. For some in the South it should be holiday, so wherever you are I hope you had a relaxing and peaceful break. I stopped doing a lot of work-related things on the 19th December and am only coming back to it now in anticipation of an exciting year ahead, so apologies for the 'radio silence' over the last three weeks. It's been bliss. I stepped down as Head of Department at the turn of the year and start a six month sabbatical today, so I'll be doing a lot of blogging, reading and writing over that time (more about this in the next few days). I did, however, keep reading some of my favourite news-sites and … [Read more...] about Critical Physiotherapy returns