brooke's blog

We had a fantastic 3 days at the APA conference with the Animal Physiotherapy Group. This was held at the Brisbane Convention centre. What a great experience to organise such an event. I am totally exhausted but I trust that all enjoyed.  As we are a new profession it is such a great opportunity to come together, combined with animal physios from US, NZ and Australia wide to learn from such a high callibre of speakers (including Dr Bergh from Sweeden).  We managed to get 12 dogs into the Convention centre for our canine workshop (and no-one peed which was my main concern) and 13 horses on the monday at the Burpengary Equestrian centre.  Breakfast sponsored by Regeneus and our international speaker by Merial made our program complete.

I would like to thank the committee who helped me throughout the year make this possible. It only comes every 2 years so I soaked up all days we had on offer.

Some pictures of our days....

Cheers

It has been a very interesting and rewarding Month

Through May I have travelled as part of the NCVS (North Coast Veterinary Specialist) team on our conference series. We started in Mooloolaba then headed to Mackay and Hervey Bay to educate Vets and Vet nurses.  This year my topic was Cruciate Ligament Injury in the Dog - the most common cause of lameness in the dog.  It was great to visit these areas and be part of such a great team to continue our education series.  I trust this was well received and was very grateful to be part of such a highly skilled and motivated team.

I also had a meeting in Melbourne with the APA (Australian Physiotherapy Association) as part of the committee for the Animal Physiotherapy Group (APG).  We have been discussing many professional issues.  Animal Physiotherapy is a new profession in Australia.  We are working with our professional body to continue our educational pathway.  At this stage the Masters Program I completed is not running so we are working establishing our training program once again.

For over 2 years now I have also been trying to work with the Pet Insurance companies to include Physiotherapy as part of their insurance package to their clients.  In human health care Physiotherapy is vital and well established for rehabilitation, conservative management to prevent surgery and further recurrence of injures, and maximise quality of life.  I strongly believe that this model applies to our Pets in Australia.  The APA is also helping me to establish this for our profession.  Hopefully we will have some success to greatly enhance the opportunities for rehabilitation for our pets.

So it has been a very interesting and rewarding month.  Off for a surf in the morning to breathe a little!!

Thanks so much to Paula and the APA (Australian Physiotherapy Association) for placing this article of me in the In Motion magazine. I am very honoured!

Click image to enlarge

I have almost completed the program for the upcoming APA (Australian Physiotherapy Association) Conference in October for Animal Physiotherapy.   This is a very large event held every 2 years for Physiotherapy in Australia and will be held at the Brisbane Convention Centre this year.
I have been organising the Animal Physiotherapy Group and I am very excited about the highest level of International and National Physiotherapists and Veterinarians we have presenting this year. It has been a great learning process for me to plan this event.  It is shaping up to be a fantastic conference with sponsorship from Merial and Regeneus (Stem/Adicell) to support our International Speaker Dr Anna Bergh from Sweden, a Breakfast and workshops for Canine and Equine Physiotherapy techniques.

Thanks to all those who have been involved helping on the committee. 
For more information feel free to visit the APA website: www.physiotherapy.asn.au