Feedback
If you’ve attended one of my workshops, it would be great if you could let me know how it worked out for you.
What did you enjoy about it?
What would you have liked more of?
What was the least helpful part of the workshop?
What would you like in a future/more advanced workshop?
Thanks for your help!
Great entry on evidence – very thoughtful and precise. As blogging allows for some degree of informality – I sometimes lack in eloquence (i.e. my reference to stepping in cowpies), but I appreciate the way you handled this topic. Well done.
Anyway, I know you are interested in pain so I wanted to make you aware of some work that I just posted on my blog. It was part of a project I did in my doctoral studies – which opened up more questions than it answered. It was an interesting exercise nonetheless. It is the entry dated today (10/11).
Have a wonderful weekend.
Chris
Hi Chris
Thanks for that – it’s something you and I both have in common I think, this emphasis on evidence!!
And thanks for the link to your latest entry – I’ll spend some time cruising through your blog and link to things I can find as relevant.
BTW – as a country girl I know all about cow pats. I’m pretty relaxed about language too, and tend to write in lengthy and fairly ungrammatical phrases! I talk like it too…
cheers
Bronnie
Greetings
I noticed your blog and wanted to advise you that I have added it to my own blog roll at http://www.yourerdoc.com. I think there are some complementary synergies between our readers and I hope you will consider adding http://www.yourerdoc.com to your blog roll listing in the near future as well.
Thanks for the consideration.
Sincerely
Brian Evans MD
Great blog. I am a fitness trainer in the Los Angeles area. I will use your sight often.
Steve
You’re welcome Steve, I hope you take the time to comment too – I love being able to discuss things in this forum.
cheers
Bronnie
Hello!
Would you be interested in an guest post on your website? I would like to propose an article on the benefits of acupressure.
If you are interested, please get back to me so I can start working on this article. If this topic doesn’t work for you, I am sure I can think of another topic that is relevant to your site.
Cheers,
Christine
Hi Christine,
Thanks for the offer, but I’m primarily writing on self management, or things that people with pain can do for themselves. My argument is that people obtaining treatment for pain are best doing things that they can stay in control of and not need to spend time or money getting treatment because this takes them away from their lives.
Thanks again for the offer, though.
kind regards
Bronnie
Dear Bronnie,
My name is Barbara O’ Brien and my blogging at The Mahablog, Crooks and Liars, AlterNet, and elsewhere on the progressive political and health blogophere has earned me the notoriety of being a panelist at the Yearly Kos Convention and a featured guest blogger at the Take Back America Conference in Washington, DC.
I’m contacting you because I found your site in a prominent health reform blog search and want to tell you about my newest blogging platform —the public concern of health care and its reform. Our shared concerns include health reform, tort reform, public health, safe workplaces, and asbestos contamination.
To increase awareness on these important issues, my goal is to get a resource link on your site or even allow me to provide a guest posting. Please contact me back, I hope to hear from you soon. Drop by our site in the meantime—www.maacenter.org/blog.
Thanks,
Barbara O’ Brien
barbaraobrien@maacenter.org
Hi Barbara, thanks for taking the time to comment on my blog, it means a lot to me that people find it interesting and perhaps useful. I’ll reply to your request via email.
Cheers
Bronnie
Hello! Really really brilliant blog. I read journals and research artcles all day and your blog has been a brilliant break from the clinical desert of academia no matter how useful.
I have a question for you, if you don’t mind? I have been searching like crazy for some evidence based occupational therpy focused research on current and future practice with chronic pain. I have come up with lots from a psychotherapeutic stand point with OT as a supporting role, But almost nothing from a purely OT standpoint. Any chance you might have some suggestions or pointers to finding some good pieces?
I have highly recommended your blog to everyone here at Brunel University. Please keep up the brilliant work.
Cheers.
Aram Delgado (OT Student)
Hi!
Thanks so much for your comments, it’s great to know you’re finding it helpful.
Regards your enquiry about occupational therapy and chronic pain, you’re right, there are very few papers written by occupational therapists as lead researchers. There are a couple using COPM as an outcome measure, but otherwise nothing that would rock your world.
It’s an area of research that has been dominated by psychology for a long time, maybe an opportunity for occupational therapists to start making an impact in terms of living well despite pain?
cheers
Bronnie
Your blog is utterly fantastic! I am a physio with a huge interest in pain management. I am soooo glad I came across your blog – not only is it interesting, up-to-date and full of knowledge, it is also a source of great encouragement for me as a clinician dealing with chronic pain patients and for people who suffer from long-term pain. Please keep it going!!
Thank you so much for your kind words! I’m a bit of a fanatic for pain management – can’t you tell?! – so can’t help burbling on. Let me know if there is anything you’d like me to cover.
cheers
Bronnie
Fanatic to fanatic then
Will definitely tap into the resources on the site 
http://www.uwe.ac.uk/hlss/courses/philosophy/ahrc_chid_network.shtml
Bronnie, I wonder if this is any interest to you ? Havi ‘s book (Illness) on her personal experiences and the philosophy of health is extremely well written. I thought the network might have interested you as you are studying people with chronic pain who don’t utilise health care resources -not sure if that is right. or not!
iam
I haven’t attended any of your workshops, but I would like to know more about behavioural approach.
How would you do it for weight loss? it seems like I cannot find any good resources about behavioral approaches.
Dear Bronnie,
I’ve been reading over and over again your take on a comprehensive assessment, specially regarding the series of tests that you recommend. Ok, what if we do all of those tests. Then, what do yo +u do about it? what changes in your practice if a patient has kinesiophobia or anxiety or both? what tools do we -as thepists (being a physical therapist myself)- have in order to help our patients without being too psychoanalitic (a paradigm that has been left behind by psychologists and that’s not in our field)?
Sorry for my crapy english, i learned from watching cable tv, internet and papers, so….it’s what you would call a solid base
Your blog it’s amazing, really great job!!
Best regards from Chile
Hi Nicolas, you raise some very interesting points here! I’ll work through some of them in this reply, then probably write some blog posts about others. The first thing is that if you’re working alone as a solo practitioner, or in a single profession, addressing all the issues that an assessment like the one I described is not practical. The comprehensive pain assessment I described is carried out by a doctor, someone functional (usually physiotherapist, but could be an occupational therapist), and someone with a psychosocial background such as a psychologist, social worker, nurse, or occupational therapist. And the findings and recommendations from such a broad-based assessment will reflect the range of professions involved, so usually include medical as well as functional and psychosocial recommendations.
If you’ve carried out some of these assessments and find that the person is highly fearful of moving, then I do think this is something a physiotherapist or occupational therapist can address – but it does mean learning some new skills and applying them within your usual practice.
I’ll write some posts about this soon, because it’s something lots of people have asked me but I don’t think I’ve ever actually written about!
BTW your English is a whole lot better than my Chilean!!
I am not an OT. I am a PT but have the same sense. I think that the old designations of alphabetical therapists no longer fits the science of caring of people. I was hoping that I would get permission to enter the area for OT’s only. JohnB
Hi John, at this stage I’d like to keep the OT area for occupational therapists. It’s nothing personal about physiotherapists (some of them are my favourite people!). I almost agree about the alphabetical therapists (love that term!) except that I think one of the issues we’re trying to clarify is exactly that: articulating what makes an occupational focus distinct from a functional or psychological one. I openly admit to being a bit of a renegade, yet over the past two years have started to come back into the fold because of a renewed confirmation that an occupational focus is what underpins the approach of a profession that is so incredibly broad in application – from hand therapy to homelessness! I do only post occasionally in this area, so the majority of what I write about is in the open area.
kind regards
Bronnie
No problem. Just interested in your thoughts. JohnB
…and you’ve stimulated yet another blog post – watch out for one called “alphabetical therapists”!!
HI Bronnie
I am very interested to read your latest entry “Why I can no longer think of myself as an occupational therapist”. However unfortunately I have lost my security number for OT only area. Could you possibly send to me again?
I am an OT, having worked in pain management for many years and expect that I may be in agreement with at least some aspects of what you have to say, but await reading with interest!
Regards
Edwina Shannon