August 2008

The countdown is on with only 12 days to go.  The 8th September is an opportuntity for physical therapists from around the world to raise awareness about the crucial role the profession plays in making and keeping people well, mobile and independent. 

If you haven't as yet planned anything, there is still time to mark the day.  Print one of our ready made information sheets, 'Did you know ...?' with facts and figures about the profession or our 'About physical therapy' to have available to hand out to patients on the day.  Dowload our logo and just print some posters (A4/letter size) to advertise the day and don't forget to print our stickers onto one of your label sheets for everyone to wear on the 8th.  Go to http://www.wcpt.org/about/internationalptday/index.php.

It is important to say what we do, why we do it and why physical therapists are the movement, physical activity and exercise experts.  Remember to send in details of what you did to celebrate the day along with any photos you may have of the event for us to use on the wcpt website (rmoore@wcpt.org).

The new logo for World Physical Therapy 2011 is now on the WCPT website.  It will shortly be available for download so that member organisations may promote the congress on their websites and provide a link to the relevant section of the WCPT website.

If you do presentations regularly, how about helping us to promote the congress by incorporating the logo in your power point presentations.  Contact us and we'll send you a logo ready for use in power point.

We are currently re-developing the WCPT website to provide a more dynamic and interactive site, promoting increased online collaboration.  The new site is scheduled to launch early next year.

At various stages of the development of the new site, our recently recruited web user group will be asked to provide feedback on specific features/functions, as well as the layout and organisation of content on the site.

We would like to thank all members of the user group, who are participating on a voluntary basis, for their valuable contribution to this project.  We may require additional input as the project progresses, therefore, if you are keen to participate in the user group please contact Rachel Moore (rmoore@wcpt.org).  We are particularly interested in hearing from people who have accessibility issues such as a slow internet connection, visual impairment or motor difficulties.

The Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation at the Ludwig-Maximilians University of Munich, Germany, is looking for physical therapists with outstanding expertise in the treatment of patients with Diabetes Mellitus (DM). 

The participants will take part in an international study to validate a comprehensive International Classiciation of Functioning, Disability and Health (ICF) Core Set for DM from the perspective of physical therapists.  To participate please contact Hamzeh Awad, Hamzeh-Awad@med.uni-muenchen.de (please send a copy of your request to mlockner@wcpt.org).  For more information on the ICF core sets projects see www.icf-research-branch.org.

Call for research proposals: incentives to attract and retain qualified health workers to under-served areas within low and middle income countries.  This call for proposals is jointly issued by the Alliance for Healthy Policy and Systems Research (HPSR) and the Human Resources for Health department at WHO.

As the work focuses upon evidence to policy linkages at the national level, the alliance HPSR particularly encourages applications from national (or sub-national) institutions in developing countries. 

For further information please go to http://www.who.int/alliance-hpsr/callsforproposals/en/.  The deadline for submission of proposals is 12th September 2008.