I am switching between so many different stages at the moment in the inquiry process that I can't keep track, it's definitely not as straight forward as I thought it was going to be!
I was talking to one of the paediatric physiotherapists at work about my research project, and I was explaining to her about my own personal experience of being injured at dance school. I told her that when I was injured in my first year I had to watch every class and take notes, with no personal therapy plan given to me to rehabilitate my injury and get me back to full fitness. This shocked her, and made me realise that there was no real guidance for me at school to recover from my injury, physically and Psychologically. I think this is why I have found my inquiry so interesting.
It is a field that is personal to me and it is something I can relate to- I want others to be intrigued by it too when I present my findings.
We also talked about my journey so far with interviewing professionals at work, and how many of the physiotherapists have never had a dancer come to them for treatment before. I have discovered their views on how they would approach the treatment of an injured dancer, but what treatment is actually given to professional dancers?
This was a light bulb moment for me as I have not yet been down the path of what treatment is given to injured dancers. The National Institute of Dance Medicine and Science is an institution that provides Dance injury Clinics around the UK; partnering with the NHS and private clinics. This was a shock to me as I had no idea there was a free service on the NHS providing specialist treatment for dancers.
The NHS specialist dance medicine clinics runs from the Royal national Orthopaedic hospital's central London outpatient assessment centre. The clinic is run by Dr Roger Wolman, MD, FRCP, FFSEM, Consultant in Rheumatology and sport and exercise medicine. He is supported by a specialist dance physiotherapist and two junior doctors. A referral can be made from your GP, and information on how to approach this is on the NIDMS website:
http://www.nidms.co.uk/healthcare
Here you can download referral information to take to your GP appointment and it also provides the clinics that are available for this service around the UK.
There is also the DANCE UK'S health practitioner directory on this link, which is a database of UK medical practitioners and complementary therapists with experience of working with dancers.
Dancers can also contact Helen Laws ( Manager of NIDMS, one dance UK) directly, to discuss which practitioner would be best suited to their complaint or injury.
So after several phone calls yesterday, there may be potential interviews in the pipe line with Helen Laws and Dr Roger Wolman, to hopefully discover what kind of treatment is available for Dancers in these specialised clinics around the UK. I am very excited about this, and I intend to use these interviews as part of my professional artefact.
I also found a BBC news article from 2012 when the dance injury clinic was first launched:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-17846564
I do find it alarming that I didn't know anything about this service, particularly the free NHS service because when you are an injured free lance dancer, paying for private health care for your injury is out of the question. This service would of been extremely valuable to me throughout my dancing career.
Katrina
x
I was talking to one of the paediatric physiotherapists at work about my research project, and I was explaining to her about my own personal experience of being injured at dance school. I told her that when I was injured in my first year I had to watch every class and take notes, with no personal therapy plan given to me to rehabilitate my injury and get me back to full fitness. This shocked her, and made me realise that there was no real guidance for me at school to recover from my injury, physically and Psychologically. I think this is why I have found my inquiry so interesting.
It is a field that is personal to me and it is something I can relate to- I want others to be intrigued by it too when I present my findings.
We also talked about my journey so far with interviewing professionals at work, and how many of the physiotherapists have never had a dancer come to them for treatment before. I have discovered their views on how they would approach the treatment of an injured dancer, but what treatment is actually given to professional dancers?
This was a light bulb moment for me as I have not yet been down the path of what treatment is given to injured dancers. The National Institute of Dance Medicine and Science is an institution that provides Dance injury Clinics around the UK; partnering with the NHS and private clinics. This was a shock to me as I had no idea there was a free service on the NHS providing specialist treatment for dancers.
The NHS specialist dance medicine clinics runs from the Royal national Orthopaedic hospital's central London outpatient assessment centre. The clinic is run by Dr Roger Wolman, MD, FRCP, FFSEM, Consultant in Rheumatology and sport and exercise medicine. He is supported by a specialist dance physiotherapist and two junior doctors. A referral can be made from your GP, and information on how to approach this is on the NIDMS website:
http://www.nidms.co.uk/healthcare
Here you can download referral information to take to your GP appointment and it also provides the clinics that are available for this service around the UK.
There is also the DANCE UK'S health practitioner directory on this link, which is a database of UK medical practitioners and complementary therapists with experience of working with dancers.
Dancers can also contact Helen Laws ( Manager of NIDMS, one dance UK) directly, to discuss which practitioner would be best suited to their complaint or injury.
So after several phone calls yesterday, there may be potential interviews in the pipe line with Helen Laws and Dr Roger Wolman, to hopefully discover what kind of treatment is available for Dancers in these specialised clinics around the UK. I am very excited about this, and I intend to use these interviews as part of my professional artefact.
I also found a BBC news article from 2012 when the dance injury clinic was first launched:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-17846564
I do find it alarming that I didn't know anything about this service, particularly the free NHS service because when you are an injured free lance dancer, paying for private health care for your injury is out of the question. This service would of been extremely valuable to me throughout my dancing career.
Katrina
x
Hi Katrina, I can relate to your college experience, after a hamstring injury I was simply told to take notes on lessons. I was left to my own devices to find a physio and it was expensive! I wonder how many schools and colleges are aware of this NHS service?? It could be a game changer in the industry and a massive support for training dancers.
ReplyDeleteKayleigh
Hi Kayleigh, thanks for commenting! I'm not too sure on what colleges now know of this service.... would be interesting to find out though! After talking to Professor Yiannis Koutedakis ( in a Skype interview, and he did say that the future of Dance Medicine and Science will eventually be in vocational dance schools, as in they will potentially employ dance physiotherapists and dance science physiotherapists in all schools, it's just a matter of time.
ReplyDeleteHowever it does shock me how little help we were given at dance school, makes me angry that we were just told to write notes in class!
I agree it's definitely a huge game changer in the industry xx
Thanks for the discussion both. like the idea of relating practice to an industry focus - but remember to hedge and inquiries look at issues within a small scope that might indicate something for a broader state of practice
ReplyDelete