With the increasing use of the Nintendo Wii in rehabilitation, physiotherapist Rebecca Redmond has created a website named Wii-Habilitation as a source of information for therapists.
The Wiihabilitation site is mainly based on Ms Redmond’s own experience of using the Wii in her role as senior physiotherapist at the National Star College, a residential further education school for disabled 16-25 year olds in Cheltenham.
She has included information on the games she uses with students, along with research and news stories she has found relating to Wii and rehabilitation, which she updates regularly. ‘It’s not exhaustive and it doesn’t need to be only my work – I’m very happy to have contributions – but it’s a good place to start,’ she said.
Source: CSP’s Frontline
The National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) has recently published new guidelines for managing low back pain. A few of them have been highlighted in an article on the Chartered Society of Physiotherapy (CSP) website.
- Patients with low back pain will have to be offered a choice of either a structured exercise programme, a course of manual therapy, including manipulation, or a course of acupuncture, by their GP.
- All patients whose pain has lasted more than six weeks must be offered the menu of three types of evidence-based treatment.
- Patients should not be offered therapeutic ultrasound, lumbar supports, or injections of therapeutic substances into their back.
Click here to read the full article on the CSP website.
We all know that in treating our clients, the family and/or significant persons involved in caring for people with dementia provide us with pertinent information that will guide us in our intervention. “Carers Checklist” is an outcome measure for people with dementia and their carers published by the Mental Health Foundation (UK). This is an easy-to-use scale, in the form of a questionnaire, which can be used to assess the needs of people with dementia and their carers, and to evaluate the outcomes of service intervention.
The Carers’ Checklist includes items relating to the following domains of functioning for both the person with dementia and the carer:
For the person with dementia:
- Cognitive symptoms
- Psychological symptoms
- Activities of daily living and self care
- Inappropriate behaviours
- Social behaviours
- Safety issues
For the carer:
- Social burden
- Emotional burden
- Physical burden
- Financial burden
- Burden of specific dementia-related problems
- Satisfaction with services: access, co-ordination, information
Source: Mental Health Foundation (UK)
