NZ Physio Honoured

NZ Physio Honoured

NEWS RELEASE

The New Zealand Society of Physiotherapists congratulates Dr Margot Skinner, who has just been elected to the Executive of the World Confederation for Physical Therapy (WCPT). "Margot is no stranger to high honours," says the NZSP President, Jonathan Warren. "We have the utmost confidence that she will do a great job on behalf of physiotherapists and for people throughout the world who need to access physiotherapy services."

With a clear understanding of global health priorities, Dr Skinner will work to ensure that physiotherapists worldwide play a more proactive role in assisting with control of what the World Health Organisation (WHO) calls the "global epidemic of chronic diseases". Physiotherapy has an important role here in prevention through education, exercise programmes and community projects. She has experience in advising WCPT member organisations within this geographic region that are struggling to establish the right of all their people to access physiotherapy services. She has lobbied their governments about that and about the need for physiotherapy to be a regulated health profession. She is looking forward to more of this on a world scale.

In her academic post as a Senior Lecturer and Associate Dean of Undergraduate Studies at the School of Physiotherapy, University of Otago, Dr Skinner co-ordinates cardiopulmonary teaching for the physiotherapy programme. She wants physiotherapy students to appreciate global health priorities in particular, the important role of physiotherapists in the management and prevention of cardiopulmonary disease: their part in the "global alliance against chronic respiratory diseases" mandated by WHO.

Dr Skinner has been Chairman of the WCPT Asia Western Pacific Region since 2003. In New Zealand she is a member of the Health Practitioners Disciplinary Tribunal, and an External Advisor on ACC Treatment Injury and Patient Safety. She is a past president of the New Zealand Society of Physiotherapists. She is also a past member of the Physiotherapy Board of New Zealand,

Dr Skinner is currently researching the relationship between posture and health conditions affecting the spine, particularly in relation to breathing. Her doctoral research investigated therapies for sleep-related breathing disorders.

WCPT promotes physiotherapy and advances standards of physiotherapy education and practice worldwide. Member countries have debated and agreed statements of principle on a wide range of topics, including patients' rights, the rights of the child, informed consent, ethical principles, and torture.

The appointment is a four-year term, starting from the time of the next WCPT world congress being held in Vancouver in June 2007.

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