The Insurance Commission of Western Australia (ICWA) has announced an 18-month program that aims to improve the independence of people seriously injured in accidents and keep insurance premiums affordable.

A real estate agent with a passion for fundraising, avocado-smashing motorheads, a former private eye, a prodigious professor and a tenacious Taswegian were among 28 outstanding Australians, named as finalists in the Stroke Foundation’s 2019 Stroke Awards.

The launch of the National Strategic Action Plan for Arthritis this week outlines a clear pathway to implement affordable, timely access to services - including properly funded physiotherapy treatment - to support the four million Australians who live with arthritis, the leading cause of chronic pain in Australia.

If you’ve seen the shocking footage this week of a chiropractor manipulating a two-week-old baby’s spine, you might be wondering what therapies are safe and effective for infants and young children.

A recent Journal of Science and Medicine in Sport paper co-authored by Australian Physiotherapy Association (APA) members Associate Professor Ilana Ackerman and Dr Joanne Kemp has shown that sports-related knee injuries more than doubled the likelihood of knee replacement surgeries up to 15 years later.

Parents are being urged not to buy baby walkers and exercise jumpers for their babies because of the risk of injury and developmental delays.

Aussie tradies are almost twice as likely to take good care of their tools as their bodies despite having one of the highest injury rates of any occupation according to research by the Australian Physiotherapy Association (APA) released today to mark the launch of Tradies National Health Month.

The Australian Physiotherapy Association has made several key recommendations to the MBS review to increase access and equity to services, and reduce unnecessary red tape in the healthcare system.

Advice to rest and avoid pain has traditionally been given to people with chronic pain. However, research linking lower back pain in teens with work absenteeism as adults points to the need to tackle pain early, eliminating fear-avoidance behaviour later in life. During National Pain Week (23–29 July) the Australian Physiotherapy Association (APA) is highlighting the effectiveness of physiotherapy in pain management programs.

“In my early years as a physiotherapist I spent a lot of time beating myself up. Trying so hard to ‘fix’ the pain that my patients presented with I felt that I could never do enough. I was never good enough. My clinical reasoning skills where adequate, I had an eye for movement and extrasensory perception through my fingers. Nevertheless, when I listened to the painful stories that my patients shared I could feel the depth of their suffering and it felt that there was something missing from my skill tool box."