The idea that most grabbed people's attention during last week's 1st critical physiotherapy course was slow physiotherapy (you can listen back to the full talk here). Slow physiotherapy - like the slow food and slow TV movements - would be a reaction to the hyperkinetic life that we're now all leading. But more than that, it would force us to focus more on exactly how pervasive questions of time and speed are in physiotherapy today. Paul Virilio - the philosopher we looked at last week - coined the term dromology to refer to the study of speed and time and, especially, how speeded up our lives increasingly feel. Virilio was concerned with the way technology had collapsed the time … [Read more...] about Slow physiotherapy
Slow physiotherapy
For a long time now, physiotherapy practice has been becoming increasingly pressured, with less time to spend with clients, tighter regulations about the number of appointments, and unrelenting pressure to demonstrate the effectiveness and efficiency of our interventions. Where once patients would be in our hands for long enough to enjoy a modicum of rehabilitation or respite, now the emphasis is on the shortest possible contact necessary to cut the cost of care. I'm not suggesting that there's anything wrong with efficiency, independence and autonomy per se (well, I am, but that's for another day), and I'm well aware that the kinds of long-term care experienced by people under the … [Read more...] about Slow physiotherapy