CEREBRAL PALSY

Press, Volume C, Issue 29634, 3 October 1961, Page 2

CEREBRAL PALSY

Service Staff Shortage

The cerebral palsy service in New Zealand was comparable to any in the world, bnt suffered through * lack of trained visiting therapists. said Miss E. Thomson in Christchurch yesterday. Miss Thomson is the supervisor of the cerebral palsy unit at Queen Elisabeth Hospital, Estonia, and is in the South Island to observe work being carried out. The unit at Queen EUsabetb to residential, serving both islands and catering for children from areas where there are no suitable local facilities. “But a child is better at home if possible,” Miss Thomson said. Visiting therapists visited parents in their homes to advise on the care of cerebral palsied children. There were only two such therapists in New Zealand—one serving Taranaki and Manawatu, the other serving in Canterbury, the West Coast and Dunedin. In the last eight years there have been only four in service. A visiting therapist required a basic degree, either in occupational therapy or physiotherapy, and a great deal of general medical and specialist experience in cerebral palsy work at postgraduate level. Bursaries were now being offered candidates for overseas study. Miss Thomson said. Wide Experience Required The shortage of such staff could be attributed to a shortage of therapists in other fields, the hard work and wide experience required, and because it war-"a specialiM field. Mias Thornton said. However, the service given by visiting therapists in New Zealand was well ahead of that in other countries, and suffered only tbrough lack cd staff. - ■ 7. Bom in Scotland; Miss Thomson trained as a physiotherapist in Glasgow, and after worked in Edinburgh in a cerebral palsy school. She spent two years in the United States, and in London worked Jn a snastie s centre for prr-aehool tea. She took up her present appointment 18 months ago, under a three-year contract. She win be in Christchurch until Friday. Tonight she wiH address a meeting of ftooe interested In the welfare of the cerebral palsied. V