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Harmony in Israel
363
Harmony in Israel Sarah Gillson MCSP Members of the Israeli Physiotherapy Association who attended the congress of the World Confederation for Physical Therapy last year wish to congratulate the Chartered. Society of Physiotherapy on organising such a well-planned and interesting event. We were concerned about some cmiments made during the Congress and in the press and I have been asked to write and clear up any misconceptions.
I am a British-trained physiotherapist who has lived for the last 15 years in Western Galillee, close t o the Lebanese border. This is the area of Israel that has the largest proportion of Arabs to Jews. We live in close harmony and many of my colleagues and patients are Arabs Christian, Moslem, Druze and Bedouin. In fact, there are several Israeli Arab physiotherapists and there are more
training i n our schools. Our relationships or the treatments that we give our patients are not based on race or creed. Many of our patients suffer from gunshot and stab wounds and beatings because in the Middle East this is a well-known way of solving family feuds and restoring family honour. Only recently I had a young woman in her mid-20s, a mother of three young children, who had suffered from burst fractures of L 2 , 3 , 4 ,due to a beating by her husband, and only by some miracle had not ended up a paraplegic. Israel is also notorious for its car accidents, and the West Bank and Gaza Strip are no exceptions. Due to the lack of finances, nearly every physiotherapy department in a public institution in the country is understaffed, and consequently we are having to treat up to 50 patients a day. The Bethlehem School of Physiotherapy has received help from the Israeli Physiotherapy Association in finding clinical placements for its students. The staff have
Help Me if You Can! Lesley Dawson
MSc MCSP DipTP
Chairperson, Physiotherapy Department Bethlehem University The demise of the International Affairs Committee m e a n s t h a t each C S P committee has to maintain international links an d consider issues from a n international perspective. The establishment of the Standing Liaison Committee of the EEC has enabled the CSP to have a European outlook and of course most of the First World countries have very efficient societies themselves. However, there are still many areas in the world where those working as physiotherapists need advice and resources from countries whose physiotherapy services are more developed. What would you do if you started a new job and overnight became the ‘resource person’ for all other rehabilitation workers there? A number of options spring to mind - leave, hide, protest that you don’t know, or shout for help! When I started to work as chairperson of the new department of physiotherapy at Bethlehem University in September 1988 everybody assumed that I must know everything there was to know about physiotherapy world-wide! Having rented out my house in England and transported all my books to Bethlehem I wasn’t about
to leave. As for hiding, I felt like it at times, but Palestinians and expatriate physiotherapists working abroad are uety persistent - they find you! I tried to protest that I didn’t know everything, but nobody believed me, because the culture here invests foreign teachers with special status, and you do not admit that you don’t know! So I did the only thing left. I shouted for help! Thank heavens for the CSP. Before I left England I pestered the life out of the Education Department for up-to-date information on curriculum planning, assessm en t , programme evaluation and validation, and still do so regularly by fax, letter and in the holidays in person. Any one who has worked ahroad where there is no professional society (or the nearest one has its meetings in a foreign language) will know that, the CSP Journal is a lifeline. I know that many people complain that i t is not high-powered enough, but it will do for me the way it is. Not only can I read articles (and file them for future reference), but I can also catch up on all the news about the CSP country-wide I can look enviously at all the courses and conferences advertised, and if really feeling fed up can read through the ‘Appointments Vacant’ section. Having sren my- copy of the Jonrnal arrive each month, our two Palestinian staff wanted to subscribe to it, so on a visit to the CSP in 1989 they filled in t h e appropriate forms in
heen invited to functions held by the Israeli Association, which intends to continue helping in the future because it believes there are special cultural problems 111 these areas, that can best be dealt with by Arabs themselves. It is hoped that a second school of physiotherapy will be set up for Arab students. Our postgraduate courses are already open t o any physiotherapist who wishes to go nn them. Nahariya Hospital, where I work, has received its fair share of terrorist victims and only a couple of years ago a n Arab physiotherapist who worked with me had his house completely destroyed by a katusha rocket launched by Palestinians from over the border. He escaped with a fractured lumbar vertebra and severe shock. Recently we opened a new building that had been specially built to withstand katusha rocket attacks. In the name of the Israeli Physiotherapy Association I would like to extend a n invitation to any physiotherapist or student physiotherapist to come and visit our country. They will be assured of a warm welcome. Membership Department and now they too receive the Journal each month.
As yet there is no Physiotherapy Society in the West Bank and Gaza, so queries about standards of training in Yugoslavia, Greece or Poland, and standards of practice have come to me. The Professional Affairs Department, through its links with WCPT, h as provided me with valuable information which enhances my reputation of being a ‘wise woman’, and helps us establish standards of physiotherapy practice. The Public Relations D ep ar t me nt through its links with local radio and newspapers has helped me to share our experiences in Bethlehem with the Yorkshire area (and sometimes wider). T h u s f ar i t seems t h a t the only department we are not in contact with is Industrial Relations. At the moment we have no health care structure. There are some government hospitals which were transferred from Jordanian to Israeli control after 1967, but the majority of hospitals are privately funded a nd organised. All of these institutions have differences in pay and conditions of service. We hope in the future t h a t there will be more uniformity, so watch out IR! Also in the future is the possibility of a Physiotherapy Society in the West Bank and Gaza when we will continue to need help from the CSP.
So in addition to ‘help’,I say ‘thank you’, and ‘please cont,inue to keep me in touch’. Letters rnuy be uddressed to Miss Dawson c/o the Chartered Society of Physiotherapy.-Editor
Physiotherapy, May 1992, vol78, no 5
Harmony in Israel Sarah Gillson MCSP Members of the Israeli Physiotherapy Association who attended the congress of the World Confederation for Physical Therapy last year wish to congratulate the Chartered. Society of Physiotherapy on organising such a well-planned and interesting event. We were concerned about some cmiments made during the Congress and in the press and I have been asked to write and clear up any misconceptions.
I am a British-trained physiotherapist who has lived for the last 15 years in Western Galillee, close t o the Lebanese border. This is the area of Israel that has the largest proportion of Arabs to Jews. We live in close harmony and many of my colleagues and patients are Arabs Christian, Moslem, Druze and Bedouin. In fact, there are several Israeli Arab physiotherapists and there are more
training i n our schools. Our relationships or the treatments that we give our patients are not based on race or creed. Many of our patients suffer from gunshot and stab wounds and beatings because in the Middle East this is a well-known way of solving family feuds and restoring family honour. Only recently I had a young woman in her mid-20s, a mother of three young children, who had suffered from burst fractures of L 2 , 3 , 4 ,due to a beating by her husband, and only by some miracle had not ended up a paraplegic. Israel is also notorious for its car accidents, and the West Bank and Gaza Strip are no exceptions. Due to the lack of finances, nearly every physiotherapy department in a public institution in the country is understaffed, and consequently we are having to treat up to 50 patients a day. The Bethlehem School of Physiotherapy has received help from the Israeli Physiotherapy Association in finding clinical placements for its students. The staff have
Help Me if You Can! Lesley Dawson
MSc MCSP DipTP
Chairperson, Physiotherapy Department Bethlehem University The demise of the International Affairs Committee m e a n s t h a t each C S P committee has to maintain international links an d consider issues from a n international perspective. The establishment of the Standing Liaison Committee of the EEC has enabled the CSP to have a European outlook and of course most of the First World countries have very efficient societies themselves. However, there are still many areas in the world where those working as physiotherapists need advice and resources from countries whose physiotherapy services are more developed. What would you do if you started a new job and overnight became the ‘resource person’ for all other rehabilitation workers there? A number of options spring to mind - leave, hide, protest that you don’t know, or shout for help! When I started to work as chairperson of the new department of physiotherapy at Bethlehem University in September 1988 everybody assumed that I must know everything there was to know about physiotherapy world-wide! Having rented out my house in England and transported all my books to Bethlehem I wasn’t about
to leave. As for hiding, I felt like it at times, but Palestinians and expatriate physiotherapists working abroad are uety persistent - they find you! I tried to protest that I didn’t know everything, but nobody believed me, because the culture here invests foreign teachers with special status, and you do not admit that you don’t know! So I did the only thing left. I shouted for help! Thank heavens for the CSP. Before I left England I pestered the life out of the Education Department for up-to-date information on curriculum planning, assessm en t , programme evaluation and validation, and still do so regularly by fax, letter and in the holidays in person. Any one who has worked ahroad where there is no professional society (or the nearest one has its meetings in a foreign language) will know that, the CSP Journal is a lifeline. I know that many people complain that i t is not high-powered enough, but it will do for me the way it is. Not only can I read articles (and file them for future reference), but I can also catch up on all the news about the CSP country-wide I can look enviously at all the courses and conferences advertised, and if really feeling fed up can read through the ‘Appointments Vacant’ section. Having sren my- copy of the Jonrnal arrive each month, our two Palestinian staff wanted to subscribe to it, so on a visit to the CSP in 1989 they filled in t h e appropriate forms in
heen invited to functions held by the Israeli Association, which intends to continue helping in the future because it believes there are special cultural problems 111 these areas, that can best be dealt with by Arabs themselves. It is hoped that a second school of physiotherapy will be set up for Arab students. Our postgraduate courses are already open t o any physiotherapist who wishes to go nn them. Nahariya Hospital, where I work, has received its fair share of terrorist victims and only a couple of years ago a n Arab physiotherapist who worked with me had his house completely destroyed by a katusha rocket launched by Palestinians from over the border. He escaped with a fractured lumbar vertebra and severe shock. Recently we opened a new building that had been specially built to withstand katusha rocket attacks. In the name of the Israeli Physiotherapy Association I would like to extend a n invitation to any physiotherapist or student physiotherapist to come and visit our country. They will be assured of a warm welcome. Membership Department and now they too receive the Journal each month.
As yet there is no Physiotherapy Society in the West Bank and Gaza, so queries about standards of training in Yugoslavia, Greece or Poland, and standards of practice have come to me. The Professional Affairs Department, through its links with WCPT, h as provided me with valuable information which enhances my reputation of being a ‘wise woman’, and helps us establish standards of physiotherapy practice. The Public Relations D ep ar t me nt through its links with local radio and newspapers has helped me to share our experiences in Bethlehem with the Yorkshire area (and sometimes wider). T h u s f ar i t seems t h a t the only department we are not in contact with is Industrial Relations. At the moment we have no health care structure. There are some government hospitals which were transferred from Jordanian to Israeli control after 1967, but the majority of hospitals are privately funded a nd organised. All of these institutions have differences in pay and conditions of service. We hope in the future t h a t there will be more uniformity, so watch out IR! Also in the future is the possibility of a Physiotherapy Society in the West Bank and Gaza when we will continue to need help from the CSP.
So in addition to ‘help’,I say ‘thank you’, and ‘please cont,inue to keep me in touch’. Letters rnuy be uddressed to Miss Dawson c/o the Chartered Society of Physiotherapy.-Editor
Physiotherapy, May 1992, vol78, no 5