In the clinic
William Levack has been doodling again. Doesn't he have anything better to do with his time? This week: Wheelchairs of the Future. Read more »
- 02 Jul 2009
Tyson and Kent (2009) undertook a Cochrane Review to examine the effects of use of orthosis (firm splints) for ankles, wrists and hands following stroke. The review came out in favour of use of orthosis for ankles and feet, but was less supportive of the use of orthosis for management of weakness, contracture or pain in the hand or fingers following stroke. Read more »
- 16 Apr 2009
The AFRM/NIRR/NZRA Rehabilitation Conference 2009 will be held in Queenstown from 21-25 July. (Visit www.rehabconference2009.org.nz for details.) The deadline for Early Bird Registration is closing 15 May 2009, so get in quick and register now! Read more »
- 14 Apr 2009
Khan et al. (2007) conducted a Cochrane Review to evaluate and collate the best available research into the effectiveness of multidisciplinary approaches to rehabilitation for people with MS. While, like most Cochrane Reviews of this nature, the authors concluded that further high quality, multicentre studies were needed, they were able to draw a series of informative conclusions. Read more »
- 13 Apr 2009
The basis of this paper is an observation made by Levin and colleagues that the terms ‘recovery' and ‘compensation' have been used to refer to different concepts by different researchers. Too little attention, they argue, has been paid in the past to the distinction between gains in rehabilitation resulting from restoration of ‘normal' function at the level of physiology/kinesiology and gains resulting from physiological adaption or the development of compensatory movement strategies. Read more »
Doodles from William Levack's desk. Is he funny? Who knows, but at least he fills a space... This week: Diabetes management during Easter holidays! Read more »
- 27 Mar 2009
2009 is the 200th anniversary of Darwin’s birth and the 150th anniversary of his seminal book ‘Origin of Species’. The theory of evolution is one of the most important biological discoveries, period. However, evolution has also been mis-used to promote thoroughly bad ideas such as eugenics and social engineering. In the area of disability, the theory of evolution is tainted with these notions and terms such as ‘survival of fittest’ and ‘natural selection’ are quite offensive and gives the theory of evolution a bad name (which I think it might not deserve). There are two threads of thinking that I want to very briefly explore to show that the theory of evolution need not be seen as the ‘enemy’, and may actually be helpful in understanding human behaviour. Read more »
Early this year I reported on a submission I made with two colleagues to a ministerial taskforce on the development of the Primary Health Care workforce. The report from this taskforce is now in, and while interprofessional education (IPE) gets some coverage, there is still a lot of work to do in this area of clinical training in NZ. An upcoming workshop on IPE, to be held in Wellington in February 2009, is part of this ongoing work. Read more »
- 07 Oct 2008
Maria Low is a Clinical Nurse Specialist in Rehabilitation for the Burwood Spinal Unit, Canterbury District Health Board (CDHB). Recently, Maria wrote a successful business proposal to CDHB for additional hours dedicated to addressing sexuality in rehabilitation and last month she was appointed to that role. Read more »
- 09 Sep 2008
In June of this year I travelled with my wife Michelle, and 3 month old son Josh, to Stockholm in Sweden, not on some fanatical ABBA related pilgrimage (I’ll leave that to my parents generation), but to study a radically different approach to spinal cord rehabilitation – the Spinalis model. Read more »
Doodles from William Levack's desk. Is he funny? Who knows, but at least he fills a space... This week: Constraint-induced movement therapy! Read more »
- 06 Jul 2008
The NZRA is holding its conference next year, 22-25 July 2009, in partnership with the Australasian Faculty of Rehabilitation Medicine and the New Zealand National Institute of Rehabilitation Research. Read more »
Earlier in February I had the opportunity to make a submission to a ministerial taskforce on the development of the workforce in New Zealand’s Primary Health Care Sector. One reason I took this opportunity was to raise the profile of Interprofessional Education (IPE) for health professional in New Zealand. Unlike other countries New Zealand has no central organisation to advise on and advocate for IPE. Given the importance attributed to teamwork in the health sector (and in rehabilitation in particular) perhaps this is an issue that we need to address sooner rather than later. Read more »
- 22 Jun 2008
The safety of people admitted to New Zealand hospitals has featured prominently in the media this year. Dr Will Taylor debates the need to teaching and research into safety in hospitals for people with disabilities. Read more »
- 06 Jun 2008
This systematic review provides a summary of research into the effectiveness of multidisciplinary rehabilitation following hip and knee joint replacement surgery. Read more »
This Dutch study examined the process of selecting goals in rehabilitation for children with cerebral palsy, and found some tension between the ideology and the practice. Read more »
Want to receive a regular, free electronic newsletter featuring summaries of recent research in rehabilitation brought together by Professor Kath McPherson? Read more »
Gregory Kolt and Lynn Snder-Mackler edit this second edition of "Physical Therapies in Sport and Exercise" - a textbook intended for all health professionals who use physical techniques in the prevention, management and rehabilitation of injuries. Read more »
Anne Ronaldson, Nurse Specialist for "Rehab Plus" at Auckland District Health Board, advocates for the role of nursing in rehabilitation and discusses the possibility of a set up of a special interest group for rehabilitation nursing in New Zealand. Read more »
- 18 Oct 2007
AllNurses is a forum with an active online community of over 243,000 registered members and 500 nursing topics. A section has been allocated to 'rehabilitation nursing'. Directions are given here to access the website and navigate its content. Read more »
Look into my eyes... You are getting sleepy... No, its not the latest minutes from your DHB's AGM, but a study on hypnosis for the management of pain during burn wound debridement. Sceptical? Read on... Read more »
- 06 Oct 2007
"Perspectives on Disability & Rehabilitation: Contesting Assumptions; Challenging Practice" by Karen Hammell is textbook that introduces health professionals to theories of disability and rehabilitation that have arisen from the social sciences, and in particular from with the field of Disability Studies. This important textbook brings an area of study which has been largely neglected by the Health Sciences into the world of clinical practice and rehabilitation research. Read more »
This paper describes the outcomes from the first annual report of the Australasian Rehabiliation Ouctome Centre (AROC). A number of rehabilitation service in New Zealand have recently joined (or considered joining) the AROC network. This report provide examples from Australia of the type of data that could result from such networking. Read more »
Prior to the National NRRINZ/NZRA Rehabilitation Conference in Rotorua in February 2007, academics and rehabilitation theorists from New Zealand and overseas met for a two-day 'think-tank' about contemporary perspectives on that ol' chestnut: 'person-centred rehabilitation'. The outcome from this meeting was a collection of papers published in a Special Edition of the international, peer-reviewed journal 'Disability and Rehabilitation'. Read more »
Alison Masters is a psychiatrist in the Early Intervention Service for Mental Health Services at Capital & Coast District Health Board (CCDHB). She gives the lowdown on providing early interention for young adults with psychosis, the role of consumer advisors in mental health services and the place of rehabilitation principles in the management of psychiatric illness. Read more »
Having reviewed over the last year a number of web-based discussion boards that have been either deserted or populated mainly by spam, it’s nice to finally find one or two to write positively about. This one is a forum for discussion of physiotherapy - or "physical therapy" as they call it in the US. Read more »
Ouellet and Morin (based in Quebec) conducted a mail-out questionnaire to 452 people with traumatic brain injury in order to explore the concept of fatigue following brain injury and its relationship to other factors including severity of injury, psychological stress and involvement in rehabilitation. This study presents a summary of their findings. Read more »
- 20 Jul 2007
Wahington et al. (2007) set about developing and testing a measure of community participation for children and teenagers (aged 8-20) with disabilities. This is an interesting endeavour: there is already considerable information about the impact of disability during childhood on levels of social participation – but can this be measured in any meaningful way? What does ‘community participation’ mean for children anyway? Read more »
A Cochrane Collaboration review of the effectivess of occupational therapy interventions to improve the functional ability, social participation and health-related quality of life of people with rheumatoid arthritis. Read more »
The Cochrane Collaboration is an international not-for-profit organisation that aims to produce and disseminate up-to-date, accurate information about the effects of healthcare. The Cochrane Collaboration libraries are now free for all New Zealanders to access through the Ministry of Health webiste... if you know where to look. Read more »
- 01 Jul 2007
This month’s interview is with Julian Verkaaik, Manager of the Burwood Academy of Independent Living (BAIL). BAIL is an independent public trust, situated at the Burwood Hospital campus in Christchurch, and established in Feb 2006. Read more »
While not a research article per se, in this editorial Derick Wade attempts to confront the difficulties that rehabilitation researchers and practitioners have describing what it is exactly that they do. Read more »
Claire Freeman
