I want to start off by thanking Phil Calvert for his tireless effort, commitment, drive, passion and dedication to the president’s role over the past four years. 

It has really set up great opportunities for myself, the APA Board, management and members to tackle in 2021 and beyond, to springboard physiotherapy onto health and political agendas.

Late last year I was honoured to attend a celebration of the life of APA Honoured Member Karen Schneider in Darwin.

Sitting, listening to her family, friends, colleagues and community talk about her contribution to their lives really resonated that we are all strong advocates for our profession.

They spoke about how she consulted, assessed, treated and prevented thousands of injuries/conditions over her amazing career and with so many diverse people and conditions.

It had me pondering that we, as physiotherapists, do really touch the community in more ways than just treating a back, chest, pelvic prolapse, cerebral palsy, acquired brain injury or chronic pain.

We are assisting the consumer but also the community in so many ways that we don’t really fully comprehend.

We need to use our presence with our patients, clients and consumers and their families and friends to sing our praises, to inform funders and government representatives on how we physiotherapists can assist them in the prevention and management of their condition.

The APA currently has more than 29,000 members and if we all conservatively see on average 20 patients a week, we could amass more than 30 million opportunities each year to share our story, our worth, our commitment, our ethics, our scope and our value to the community and healthcare system.

Reflecting on Karen’s celebration of life and on my policy and advocacy background, my understanding of the political space and discussions with peak bodies and representatives in Canberra late last year, it is clear that we have an opportunity to use our practice to emulate what Karen achieved each day.

I challenge you all tomorrow, and the days that follow, to start a conversation with your patients about how the profession is assisting them, their family, friends and colleagues, and what economic value physiotherapy has on them and the healthcare system.

It could be your advice or treatment that prevented someone from having a total joint replacement, prevented a sports injury, prevented workers from having to take time off or prevented patients from having incontinence post-childbirth.

The APA  has done some economic modelling on what this looks like and will be releasing infographics and information soon. This will assist you and add to your innate knowledge of what you do daily. And it will also give you tangible facts and information that justifies and supports our voice.

We all know that our interventions are safe, effective, reduce symptoms, assist in quality of life, save money, save lives and ultimately assist our community.

It’s time we told our story to the consumer.

That consumer may tell someone else who might be the next minister for health, the next advisor to the secretary of health, the next case manager at an insurance company, or someone simply looking for help from the best profession in healthcare—physiotherapy.