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World Physiotherapy Day!
World Physiotherapy Day is on the Sunday the 8th of September, 2019. This year’s theme is everything surrounding chronic pain, and improving the quality of life for sufferers!
What is World Physiotherapy Day?
World Physiotherapy (Physical Therapy) Day is held every year on 8th September and was founded in 1951 (started in America, hence “Physical Therapy”).
It is now celebrated worldwide by health professionals to promote this allied health professionals role in improving health and wellbeing of society. It aims to raise the profile of the profession and campaign about relevant health related issues to governments or health policy makers.
For the community, it provides an opportunity to recognise the hard and dedicated work of physiotherapists, privately and in the wider community.
What is this Year’s Theme?
Chronic pain.
Physiotherapy is about helping people in pain to develop the skills they need to self-manage their condition, increase their activity and improve their quality of life by enhancing their day to day participation. This year, there is the hope that increasing awareness of the issues surrounding chronic pain will aid physiotherapists in their job of treating chronic pain.
Chronic pain is considered a disease state, that can persist for months or even years and serves no biologic purpose as it is not related to the threat of tissue damage. What does this mean?
It doesn’t follow the same principles of rest and re-cooperation. By the time your body is in a chronic pain state, the tissue threat is completely gone, meaning that rest is definitely not helpful or necessary for healing. In fact, we now know that resting can facilitate the problem. It is easy to see that this sounds very contradictory, which is why education on the body’s pain pathways and what causes chronic pain is a critical part of rehabilitation.
Myths Associated with Chronic Pain
Here are the top 7 myths associated with chronic pain. Debunking these myths with the wider population will go along way into tackling the current health issue with chronic pain, increased time off work and passive treatment.
So, what now?
Whilst World Physiotherapy Day is one day, this does not mean we stop spreading the message every other day of the year. Increasing health literacy about all topics, not just chronic pain will help to improve the success of treatments and reduce the number of people experiencing pain. The big issue tends to be the passive vs. active treatment approaches. Physiotherapy works best for people who acknowledge they will have to take control of their exercises and self-manage their condition for the best outcomes. Passive treatments such as taping, manual therapy, massage etc. certainly have their place, but self-management is really key.
So to celebrate World Physiotherapy Day this year, go out and be active!
- Find a local free exercise class near you
- Sign up for a fun run
- Read a health related article
- Watch a TED Talk on pain or another health topic – https://www.ted.com/talks/karen_d_davis_how_does_your_brain_respond_to_pain?language=en
- Most importantly, acknowledge and say thank you to your health professionals!
If you are someone or know someone who is suffering from chronic pain, contact us on 1800 992 999 or [email protected] to book an appointment with one of our talented physiotherapists today!
Happy World Physiotherapy Day!
For more information visit:
https://www.wcpt.org/wptday
http://www.apta.org/uploadedFiles/APTAorg/Advocacy/Federal/Legislative_Issues/Opioid/APTAOpioidWhitePaper.pdf
https://www.painmanagement.org.au/resources/about-pain/what-is-chronic-pain.html
