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
Going beyond good and bad practice
The idea that one approach to practice is superior to another is a powerful discourse in physiotherapy today. Last week I was talking with a colleague who thinks of himself as a 'critical thinker', and we were debating the merits of active rehabilitation over passive treatment. So called 'passive' treatments (some forms of massage, manipulation and electrotherapy, for example), in which the patient has treatment done to them rather than taking responsibility and actively engaging, have been the subject of much criticism in the profession for some time now. There is, I was told, indisputable evidence for the benefits of active approaches over passive treatment, and that those who … [Read more...] about Going beyond good and bad practice
30 Days of September: Day 5
Today's image was suggested by Cath Cruse-Drew. Click on the image to open it to full size. You can then save it and turn it into a desktop background by following these brief instructions. … [Read more...] about 30 Days of September: Day 5
Are health professionals parasites?
There are many powerful critical arguments about health professional practice. Anyone who has studied how health professionals came into being, whose interests they served, or how they've adapted to the broader changes happening in society, can't fail to be shaken by the belief that the fight to become the agents of our own destiny is one with many casualties, many of whom are the people we earnestly claim to serve. Perhaps one of the most powerful arguments pertaining to physiotherapy - especially those areas of the practice that relate to long-term illness and disability - comes from disabled people themselves, who, for more than half a century, have been vocal in their criticism of … [Read more...] about Are health professionals parasites?
Simon Kirkegaard – Pain neuroscience education – 30DoS #25
In this post, CPN Exec member Simon Kirkegaard, writes about the problem of stubborn (chronic) pain. Many bright minds have contemplated on the complexity of pain for millennia yet even in 2016 we are still looking for a really effective and efficient way to alleviate stubborn (chronic) pain. There is a tendency to rely heavily on passive treatments and medication for pain which produce great results for short term pain and injury but dependency and more pain for the more stubborn pain that approximately 1/5 of population of the western world live with. A new exciting systematic review by Adriaan Louw et al. (2016) provides strong evidence for pain biology education as part of … [Read more...] about Simon Kirkegaard – Pain neuroscience education – 30DoS #25
Desperately seeking evidence
A very interesting thing has been happening with the CPN blog in recent weeks. After publishing two relatively controversial blogposts - one on Six useless treatments and the other titled There are no new treatments in physiotherapy, we saw a big spike in members and enquiries through our email service. The post There are no new treatments in physiotherapy has been accessed more than 15,000 times on Facebook, and Six useless treatments nearly 13,000 times. These might not be particularly big numbers for Justin Bieber, but they are for most groups in physiotherapy. What is it about these posts that made them so popular? Based on some of the emails we received after they went … [Read more...] about Desperately seeking evidence
Six useless treatments
The Australian Physiotherapy Association (APA) recently pronounced that six interventions commonly used by physiotherapists are useless and were no longer being supported (link). As part of the Choosing Wisely initiative, the APA has decided that requesting imaging for certain instances of non-specific low back pain, cervical pain, and acute ankle trauma; plus the routine use incentive spirometry after upper abdominal and cardiac surgery, electrotherapy in cases of lower back pain, and manual therapy for patients with frozen shoulder, are all now discouraged. There are some interesting aspects to this decision that warrant some more thought. Firstly, there is the … [Read more...] about Six useless treatments