The following is a response to Professor Mike Oliver’s post of 5th June, 2015, with introduction by Dave Nicholls, “The Social model of Disability and Physiotherapy: Reflections from Mike Oliver.” I was delighted to see some work from another non-physiotherapist on this site.[1] While I am always excited to read posts by people who would change physical therapy from within, I think this must also take place in consultation with those across the floor, so to speak. I’d been getting lonely. I was especially interested to see someone as prominent as Dr. Oliver participate in the dialogue. If there is a unifying approach to disability in the field of disability studies, particularly (but not … [Read more...] about Notes on the Social Model of Disability and Critical Physiotherapy – by Thomas Abrams
Physiotherapy, HIV and Stigma
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
Why are there no physiotherapists practicing inside video games?
Survivor, a short poem by Roger McGough: Everyday, I think about dying. About disease, starvation, violence, terrorism, war, the end of the world. It helps keep my mind off things. That poem always makes me smile. I used to have it on my office wall for the times when I thought I was taking myself too seriously. I was reminded of it after last week's rather heavy blogposts about physiotherapy and sex. So I thought I'd post about something a bit more lighthearted today. In the spirit of Roger McGough then, this post is about video violence, simulated injury and death. … [Read more...] about Why are there no physiotherapists practicing inside video games?
SNAGS for anterior chest pain that are not in the textbook
Following on from my post the other day (No sex please, we're physiotherapists), I thought I would recount one of my favourite stories that illustrates just how implicit sexuality is in the work that physiotherapists do. A few years ago, I interviewed Brian Mulligan, the famous Kiwi physiotherapist, whose work has made him one of the world's most well known and well regarded practitioners. His Mobilisation with Movement approach to musculoskeletal physiotherapy, developed in the 1980s, is now followed by thousands of physiotherapists, and he is still teaching and examining all over the world. More than that though, he is one of nicest people you could care to meet; genuinely charming and … [Read more...] about SNAGS for anterior chest pain that are not in the textbook
Physiotherapy education as a gated community
In what ways does access to physiotherapy eduction function like a gated community? Because physiotherapy is such a popular programme - often one of the most popular in the entire university - we often get to choose which students we enrol. There are many ways to decide who enters the gated community and who does not. We might choose to offer places to people who represent the community they are going to serve; embody our professional values; or who will diversify the profession's profile. Most often though, we decide on the basis of academic performance and the evaluation of an interview or other face-to-face encounter. The rationale is that physiothearpy is an intensive, complex … [Read more...] about Physiotherapy education as a gated community
Radical new graduating competencies for physiotherapists
It was a reasonably modest event at WCPT (but then what isn't compared to the scale of the congress!), and so you'd be forgiven for missing it, but the formal launch of the new Threshold Standards for physiotherapists in Australia and New Zealand could actually be one of the most significant events to have happened in physiotherapy in recent years (to view the standards, click this link: Threshold standards Australia NZ 2015). For the uninitiated, the standards are the culmination of an enormous trans-Tasman project to align the graduating competencies and capabilities of all the schools in Australia and Aotearoa New Zealand. The project was commissioned by the Australian Physiotherapy … [Read more...] about Radical new graduating competencies for physiotherapists