Last week, we had the first meeting of executive of the new International Physiotherapy History Association (IPHA), and one of the items on the agenda was a proposal to host a Focused Symposium on physiotherapy history at next year's WCPT Congress in Geneva. We've got some fabulous ideas for topics, including possible talks on the history of non-medical prescribing, the roots of manual therapy, the German gymnastic movement in 1920s and 30s,and the history of needling therapies. Thinking about a theme that ties them together has been an interesting process. Physiotherapy's longstanding affinity with biomedicine might well win out, but an equally powerful discourse running through … [Read more...] about Women’s work – the handmade history of physiotherapy
An accident waiting to happen
I'm preparing for a keynote lecture at the APA Conference in Sydney in a couple of weeks time, looking at aged care as a 'bellwether' of the physiotherapy profession at large. (Spoiler alert if you're going) I'm going to argue that if we can work out how to provide meaningful physiotherapy to older adults, we'll fix a lot of the problems now besetting the rest of the profession (abstract here). Part of the joy of this kind of work is the opportunity it gives you to think 'otherwise' about seemingly obvious, taken-for-granted things, like ageing as a natural biological process, or our inalienable role as the leaders of rehabilitation for the elderly and disabled. Testing why we think … [Read more...] about An accident waiting to happen
Are you interested in the history of physical therapy?
At WCPT in Cape Town there was an incredible turn-out for a 7am Monday morning meeting of people interested in the history of physical therapy. The upshot of the meeting was that we agreed that we needed to form an international physical therapy history group. And so, we've started asking who would be interested in coming along for the ride. So far we've got 37 'members' across more than a dozen countries covering all five continents. The intention is to form a network - not dissimilar to the CPN - but perhaps functioning a little differently. The focus will probably be on raising the profile of history in and around the profession; establishing an interactive archive of … [Read more...] about Are you interested in the history of physical therapy?
Doctor knows best
Not so long ago, physiotherapists had a very close, perhaps paternalistic, relationship with the medical profession. But it seems now that our quest for professional autonomy is pushing us further away from physicians and surgeons. There are few in the profession, I think, that would dispute the obvious benefits of greater independence for physiotherapists, but this is a critical ideas blog, so I'm going to do just that. Physiotherapy has, for much of its history, been wedded to medicine. Indeed, the modern physiotherapy profession only survived and later prospered because its founders made subservience to medicine a condition of entry. Memberhip of the Society of Trained Masseuses … [Read more...] about Doctor knows best
Sore spots
There's been a recurring theme in many of my blogposts this year, and a Facebook post by Adam Meakins on Wednesday summed it up beautifully. In the post (here), Adam was responding to an earlier post by Brent Brookbush promoting a new educational video of a muscle tissue release technique, to which Adam made this comment; The continued illusion or delusion of therapists thinking they can find 'nodules' 'trigger points' 'knots' 'taut bands' 'scar tissue' ''gristly bits' 'snotty shit' 'gammy areas' still astounds me in 2016... these are just soft tissue sore spots of an unknown origin... Meakins (2015) http://bjsm.bmj.com/content/49/6/348.full.pdf The issue that I've been grappling with … [Read more...] about Sore spots
Fiona Moffatt – Thinking allowed – 30DoS #14
If you are new to the CPN or this 30 Day of September campaign, we run a month of daily posts on a different topic each year. This year we are focusing on ideas, articles, books, films, etc., that have inspired members of the Network. There will be a different post from a different CPN member each day until the end of the month. Thinking Allowed is a 30 minute, weekly radio discussion programme which focuses on the latest social science research as well as casting historical perspectives on the gurus of sociology and philosophy (for example a recent programme on the ideas and legacy of French Sociologist Pierre Bordieu http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b07gg1kb ). The programme is hosted … [Read more...] about Fiona Moffatt – Thinking allowed – 30DoS #14
Does physiotherapy’s hidden curriculum exclude men?
A recent article in The Conversation explored how training to be a surgeon subtly marginalised women and promoted the idea that surgery was a man's world (link). Surgical training was described as 'powerful, visible, gendered and discriminatory'. Over the last few months I've been writing and thinking a lot about the gendering of physiotherapy. Much of that has revolved around the ways that women masseuses in World War I first came into contact with young male bodies, and the brutal ways they went about rehabilitating them. (The image above is from a classic series of postcards that depicted the dominating and and fearful WWI masseuse - see Carden-Coyne, 2008). Anders Ottosson's … [Read more...] about Does physiotherapy’s hidden curriculum exclude men?