Wednesday 14 October 2015

Physio UK 2015: Future Proofing Resources

This blog post is to accompany my presentation at Physio UK.  I have accessed a lot of fantastic resources in planning the presentation and I thought that discussing these in a bit more detail might make for a useful blog post.

The title of my session is "Future Proofing Physiotherapy: Equipping the future workforce to meet the needs of the changing population" and this is an overview of some of the key resources that have shaped my ideas.

Resources on basic concepts in public health


This book explores the challenges of working in mainstream health care with limited support to address the wider determinants of health.  It is based on US health care and from a doctors perspective but there are real parallels with the challenges that we face in the UK.

The progress that the author makes in addressing some of the issues is incredible, it's a very inspiring book!

There is also a TED talk by the author.




This report published by Arthritis Research UK is a must-read for musculoskeletal physiotherapists.  It outlines the prevalence and incidence of musculoskeletal disorders and the massive cost to individuals, society and the healthcare budget.

It clearly identifies the co-morbidities that tend to accompany MSK conditions and highlights the links between disability, risk of early mortality and MSK conditions.  It explores the potential for interventions that focus on improving general health to be embedded within current MSK care.



Resources on local population health


Joint Strategic Needs Assessments analyse the health needs of the local population.  They inform the commissioning of health services within a local authority.  They underpin the health and well-being strategy (see below).  The key aim of a JSNA is to accurately assess the health needs of a local population with an view to improving it.

Every area will have a JSNA, they can be found on your local government website.
A health and well being strategy is essentially an improvement plan based on the JSNA, it is compiled by the local health and wellbeing board and they are also usually available on the local government website.

For more info on JSNAs and health & wellbeing strategies see this document "Joint Strategic Needs Assessment & joint health and wellbeing strategies explained".


Local health profiles are created by PHE, they are really easy to access you just go to the website and put in a postcode.  The give lots of useful information on local health priorities and show useful deprivation profiles of the area.








Resources on health behaviours


I first read this document last year and I've revisited it many times since, it has really influenced my thinking about the role of the Physiotherapist in addressing health behaviours.

It gives an overview of the prevalence of unhealthy behaviours and the clustering that tends to occur.  It also shows how this is changing over time and the disparity between health behaviours of the most and least deprived.

I will definitely be at David Buck's session at Physio UK!


This document is a really useful implementation guide for MECC, it outlines the resources and the organisational support that are required for successful implementation.






Finally, I went to the BHF conference last month, it was a brilliant experience and all the slides are available on their website. In fact all the resources from the last 6 conferences are there so it's well worth a look.

From the 2015 conference I found Justin Varney's presentation particularly useful in getting insight into a commissioner's perspective on physical activity interventions.


This is just a few of the resources that I have used in the planning of my presentation for Saturday, I have chosen them because they have influenced and developed my thinking on the role of the physiotherapist in public health.  These themes will be explored further in the presentation, the slides will be available on the CSP website after the conference.











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