Page 211 - THE PERCEPT STUDY Illness Perceptions in Physiotherapy Edwin de Raaij

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
During his Bachelor education in Rotterdam The Netherlands (1982-1986), the focus of learn- ing was on basic skills like exercise therapy, massage, electrotherapy and hands-on mobiliza- tion technics. He was trained to use these skills within a biopsychosocial framework called ‘Het Meerdimensionale Belasting-belastbaarheidsmodel’13. This framework had adopted a biopsychosocial perspective. This fostered his personal attitude as a physiotherapist to in- corporate patients’ ideas and preference in the physiotherapy clinical reasoning process. In his first years as a novice physiotherapist, working in primary physiotherapy care, a better understanding grew about the importance of patients’ preferences and ideas on the recovery of pain and physical function. Then, his slowly but steady progression as a physiotherapist led to the idea that patients’ psychosocial factors may play a key-role in some poorly recovering patients. This further led to the need for a better understanding of these factors. Ever since his bachelor education, the leading model in his work had been the Common-Sense Model of self-regulation of health and illness by Leventhal, an exponent of a biopsychosocial frame- work. It was this model which guided him to explore and address patients’ ideas and pref- erence in daily practice. Finally, it stood at the very beginning of his journey to scientifically explore this model in primary physiotherapy care as a junior researcher.
Edwin is currently working in several institutions:
• Teacher and junior researcher at Institute for Human Movement Studies University of
Applied Sciences Utrecht The Netherlands
• Pain clinic University Medical Center Utrecht The Netherlands
• Primary physiotherapy care Wolbert Fysio at Uden The Netherlands
• Fysiometrics educational platform
About the author
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