We are thrilled to invite you to a Pre-Congress Course sponsored by the WHD!
Course Information:
Treat Your Own Pelvic Floor with Carolyn Vandyken
Wednesday April 24th from 3-7PM at the Congress 2024 site (Vancouver)
Cost: Free We believe the course content is too relevant and important not to share it widely! The course is open to any CPA Member who wants to learn more about pelvic health.
To register, simply follow this link: https://forms.gle/PWBaepFLU6HDGGFv8
If you have any questions about registration or the pre-congress course, please contact us at:
Course Description:
Health care accessibility, waiting lists, and family doctor shortages have all contributed to the lack of access to rehabilitation for MSK problems, including pelvic health issues. Interestingly, if the number of people affected by Urinary Incontinence (UI) worldwide were represented as a country, this would be the third largest in the world, and only slightly smaller than the population of the USA. (Kennaway, 2022)
It is no longer about the lack of trained pelvic health therapists in Canada. Training is now a stronghold in most provinces. It is not about a lack of evidence. We have enjoyed Level 1 evidence for the use of pelvic floor muscle training in the treatment of women with urinary incontinence for well over a decade.
Robin McKenzie, a pioneer in the field of mechanical diagnosis and treatment (MDT), recognized that the need for the average person to understand their MSK problems superseded the need to “protect” our knowledge and niche in the MSK world. Injuries are so common, and treatment cannot be for the privileged few who can afford it.Dr. Dave Nicholls also agrees with this tenant. He is a driving force for physiotherapists to reframe the social components of our profession to effectively meet the needs of the average person, not just the Canadians who can afford our services. (Physiotherapy Otherwise, 2022).
Pelvic Health spans at least three of our divisions, the Women's Health Division, the Orthopaedic Division, and the Pain Science Division. This course seeks to find common ground in all three divisions for the prescription of pelvic floor muscle training for all patients who need it, despite the orientation of the physiotherapist they are seeing (MSK, pelvic health, or pain clinician). This course seeks to empower clinicians and patients to de-pathologize pelvic health problems and to use common-sense lifestyle approaches to create health and wellness in all their systems, including their pelvic floor.
Upon completion of this course, clinicians will:
1. Effectively identify pelvic health concerns in a trauma-informed way
2. Challenge their own confirmation bias that pelvic health concerns are “difficult” to talk about
3. Develop a framework for assessing and treating pelvic health concerns without the “necessity” of doing an internal examination, whilst recognizing when doing an internal exam is necessary, and preferable, to optimize outcomes.