Physiotherapy is Handling: Then and Now

The seminal paper “Physiotherapy is Handling” was presented by Joyce Williams at the Chartered Society of Physiotherapy (CSP) Founders’ Lecture at the CSP Annual Congress in 1985 and was reproduced in the Physiotherapy Journal in February 1986 (Vol.72, no.2).  Joyce’s biographical details current at the time of publication appear following the summary at the top of the paper. Joyce was a distinguished Chair of the CSP from 1982 until 1985 and was well known internationally as well as nationally for her outstanding contribution to the development of physiotherapy as a profession in the United Kingdom.

The CSP Annual Founders’ Lecture is held in memory and celebration of the great initiatives and contributions of the Founders of the Society from 1894:

A summer afternoon in the year 1894, two anxious young women in earnest conversation.  Rosalind Paget, the elder, tall, slight and distinguished, is dressed in the close fitting bonnet and dark uniform dress of the Queen’s Nurses;  Lucy Robinson, the younger, round-about in build, is enveloped in the huge circular cloak designed for midwives, so designed that they could walk safely through the rain clasping under this cloak the precious basket from which the juvenile mind of the period believes the baby will emerge.”

Rosalind and Lucy are both practising massage or “medical rubbing”, a form of treatment now finding its way in the armamentarium of the medical profession.”

Lucy and Rosalind were very concerned about the “noisome rumours”, not only in the press but also in medical journals about articles on what had come to be known as “massage scandals”.

“Suddenly Lucy exclaims “let’s form a Society,”  Rosalind is horrified: “A Society of massage at this time! What would people think, what would the doctors say?”

But the seed has been sown and Lucy had won.  Before the month is out certain of their colleagues have been consulted and the date of a meeting is fixed.  In the early Autumn ten tried and trusted workers enter the meeting as ten individual women practising medical rubbing and emerge as the ‘The Society of Trained Masseuses'” (Wicksteed, 1948)

The Founders’ Lecture was proposed in 1914 and the first lecture took place in 1915.

I was working my way through a batch of old papers as part of a project and came across this excellent, powerful and brilliantly argued paper written by my friend and mentor from whom I learned so much and thought how amazingly perceptive, persuasive and true her argument was and to me, still is.  Joyce kindly gave me her blessing to get the paper published again here – Physiotherapy is Handling.

In her lecture Joyce explains that the founders of the profession were “selling” trained, respectable masseuses but for today’s physiotherapy it is less clear.

Clearly the world around us is changing rapidly and things are not as they were in the 1980s, the many needs and demands for the skills, knowledge and wide-ranging ability and insights of physiotherapists expand rapidly, and this will continue to increase much faster than the ability to satisfy this pressure worldwide.   The traditional hands on and one-to-one physiotherapy remains as true today as ever and is the core and foundation on which our profession is built, “Physiotherapy is Handling”.  However, it has become increasingly necessary for us to develop more expansively upon the essential and core elements to support and influence for example, educators, trainers, carers and others as well as patients with long term conditions who have their own contributions to make, based on the insights, knowledge and learning we must pass on.  If asked:  “What is it that distinguishes physiotherapy from all other professions and services?” and “What is it that marks what we do as unique compared with other professions and services?”   I would answer that the foundation and uniqueness of our profession remains “handling” as Joyce Williams argued forty years ago.

References:

Wicksteed, JH. 1948. The Growth of a Profession.

Posted by Rob Jones

Currently, Lead Governor at Moorfields Eye Hospital Foundation Trust 2021- date; Trustee and Director Moorfields Eye Charity 2017-date. Vice-chair advisory group for the development of the new Moorfields Eye Hospital, London due for completion in 2027; this state-of- the- art ophthalmic centre comprises Moorfields Eye Hospital, the Institute of Ophthalmology, education, training and research. Rob became a Patient Governor in 2004 when the role was first introduced in England and since that time has served terms as Vice- Chair of Governors, Chairman of the non-executive Recruitment and Remuneration committee and Chair of the Governance committee. Rob is a registered blind person, having been blind since birth. He is a former chair of the Chartered Society of Physiotherapy, having served on the CSP Council for sixteen years and was the first physiotherapist to represent the profession on the Regulatory Authority (the Health and Care Professions Council) at its creation, this was a Ministerial appointment; he was also the Allied Health Professions (AHP) Consultant seconded to the Commission for Health Improvement – the fore-runner of the Health and Care Quality Commission. Rob has served on several Department of Health working groups and committees including Referral to Treatment, IM&T Programme Board, Manpower Planning Advisory Group and chaired the Reed Clinical Coding working party. Rob holds a Doctorate in Management, a Master’s in Social Policy and Administration and a BA in History, Philosophy and Humanities. He graduated as a chartered physiotherapist in 1971 and was a winner of the McTier prize. Rob was a physiotherapy clinician for many years and became a CSP tutor and supervisor in manual therapy. He became a senior leader and manager in physiotherapy and the Allied Health Professions working at Executive Board level. After retirement from the NHS he set up and ran a company working in Leadership and Management Consultancy nationally and internationally and is the lead author and joint editor with Dr Fiona Jenkins for a series of books on leadership and management topics for the Allied Health Professions and has jointly led masterclasses and presentations. He is the author of more than thirty articles and papers on a wide variety of topics on clinical, management, leadership, IM&T and historical topics. He was a founder executive member of the International Physiotherapy History Association. Rob has supervised students at PhD and Masters levels and is a life Honorary Fellow of the University of Brighton. He has a wide range of other interests including: music, ballroom and latin dancing, sport-particularly rugby and cricket, and is widely travelled.

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