As a new graduate, Terry Haines stumbled onto a research career in falls prevention that has brought him many awards and accolades. He recently added another award to that cache, becoming a Member of the Order of Australia.

Professor Terry Haines APAM never intended to work in the aged care sector as a new graduate physiotherapist, but fate had other ideas.

The APA is the fourth member-based health association I have worked for.

There are similarities among all of them because issues of concern to members share certain commonalities.

All associations and organisations with a large, diverse membership working across the entirety of healthcare face substantial challenges in communicating.

Chronic low back pain (LBP), defined as lasting for three months or more, is the leading cause of years lived with disability globally, due to both persistent pain and high disability.

Physiotherapy associations across the world are working to remove barriers to healthcare and physiotherapy so that patients can have safe and affordable—if not free—access to the physiotherapy services they need, where and when they need them.

As the APA advocates for publicly funded first contact physiotherapy in primary care in Australia, we look at overseas models and at their challenges and opportunities.

Professional sport has developed a system of coordinated and connected healthcare that in a perfect world would be the standard for everyone.

These professional leagues and associations understand how to provide best practice healthcare for their athletes.

I met with Rebecca Falkingham, the new CEO of the National Disability Insurance Agency, with the aim of building a better relationship with the department and the agency. 

In the December issue of InMotion last year, the incoming Australian College of Physiotherapists (ACP) president, Tom McMillan FACP, talked about the strategic plan that the College launched in October 2021 here.

Historically, the scope of practice of physiotherapy and other health professions in Australia was clearly defined and documented.

‘Australia is one of the wealthiest countries in the world and yet we cannot build a community-based health system.’

These were the words of one of this country’s leading health policy experts when we sat down to discuss the current state of our health sector.