Latest Blogs
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Fraying at the edges...
I had no idea how interesting it would be, being a physiotherapist, watching my own body slide away. No, not weight loss, just a steady trickle of small things disappearing as age moves on. At 82 it is becoming more obvious and I have found it intriguing to realise that much of the loss is quietly and subtly neurological. Wish I had understood that when I was working years ago! (and a further ‘No’ - I don't think I have a neurological condition per se). So this is a report on my findings from the 'Far Side' of retirement. Maybe I should add that I am increasingly convinced that you cannotSee more
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Physiotherapy UK conference
See moreUK 2017 conference time! And here is my special congress memento. A 37-year old coffee mug (left) from the 1980 CSP Congress held sumptuously in Edinburgh University. Is it a collector’s item now? No sale though, because for me it is very special. 1980 was the year when the profession really came to life. We were out from under the clinical control of the medical profession. The CSP had its third chair who was a physiotherapist, not a doctor. Physiotherapy services were now being run by district physiotherapists. We were seen as senior managers with freedom to provide the best service we could
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Cautionary tales for young physiotherapists
Grandma Williams (GM) now and in her younger (JW) days. Once upon a time in the early days of physiotherapy..... Patients, meaning old ladies, with 'broken hips' were put on traction for 10 weeks, maybe longer. The only hope was to see if it would heal. No hip replacements then! There they lay, pretty immobile, pressure sores developing, inevitably bladder infections making matters worse, and finally broncho-pneumonia. We did what we could, with whole ward bed activity classes, breathing exercises and specific treatment. If they survived, and the rate was low, we had the job of getting them onSee more