Aflarth' 1959 P H Y S I O T H E R A P Y Page 3

(C o n te n ts .

E d ito r ia l ............................................................................................................................................................................ ... P a g e  3

T h e  F ield o f C rip p le  C a r e  ............................................................................................................................... ....... P a g e  4

W o rld  C o n fe d e ra tio n  o f  P hysical T h e ra p y  .......................................................................................................... P a g e  8

T im e  M a rc h e s O n  (C o n c lu s io n )................................................................................................................................... ... P a g e  10

G e n e ra l >............................... ... P a g e  13

B ra n c h  N ew s .............................................................................................................................................................. ... P a g e  12

S tu d e n ts’ C olum n .............................................................................................................................................................. ... P a g e  13

L e tte r s  to the E d ito r  ................................................................................................................................................ ... P a g e  14

B o o k  Review .............................................................................................................................................................. ... P a g e  6

EDITORIAL

AS industry becomes more mechanized, we find the machine enroaching into every walk o f 
life. Housewives use washing machines, polishing 
machines, beating machines, sweeping machines; 
office workers use type-writing machines, accounting 
machines, duplicating machines and in medicine, 
machines o f many varied types are being used for 
diagnostic and treatment purposes.

These are all very valuable and serve a very im­
portant part in our lives, but we must not forget 
how to use our own most valuable tools, our hands, 
jpn the badge o f the Chartered Society o f  Physio­
therapy are two hands indicating the significant 
part played by these in this branch o f medicine.

In the early days massage was the all important 
factor and the term Physiotherapy was unknown. 
We would all have been masseuses or masseurs 
relying almost entirely on our own skilled, trained 
hands, to bring about relief and give assistance to 
those in pain or suffering some physical handicap.

Gradually machines, each one more beautiful 
and more spectacular that the last, have crept into 
Physical Medicine Departments and Private Prac­
tices. We are now physiotherapists in the main, 
and in danger o f becoming technicians in a 
“push-button age.

D ealing with machines makes one less tolerant, 
less sympathetic and even less humane, when 
dealing with patients. They tend to becom e case 
numbers and types and are often referred to as 
“ the knee” or “the shoulder” or “ Number 32” .

The personal approach o f the physiotherapist to 
the patient and the link which is set up between 
the physiotherapist and the patient, either makes 
the ensuing treatment successful or otherwise. 
Seldom do patients get relief despite themselves. 
It is alm ost always, no matter what the conditions, 
because o f the co-operation between the physio­
therapist and the patient. This cannot com e about 
if the physiotherapist merely turns on a few knobs 
o f  a smart machine, walks away and does the same 
for “the shoulder” lying in the next cubicle.

M achines play a very important part in modern 
physiotherapy. W ithout them our lives would be 
very much more difficult, and our patients would 
often return hom e having gained no relief from 
pain or stiffness; muscles would waste away and 
many an incorrect diagnosis would be made.

We must, never the less, never expect a machine 
to do what can be done more adequately by our 
trained hands. U se machines, let them play their 
all-important role in modern Physiotherapy, but 
use them as a supplement to our hands, rather 
than as a replacement.

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