Who Cares for the Carer?

Physiotherapy October 1999/vol 85/no 10

571Video reviews

Book reviews

Available from the Cicely Northcote Trust, 1 Royal Street,London SE1 7LL1999. 23 minutes

£15, carers’ organisations £10This video justly merits the 1999 British Medical Associationaward for Educational Merit.

It clearly and realistically demonstrates differing needs andhow some carers can be helped. It shows well proactive support,through early identification of carers by Primary Health CareTeams, for the teams, other professionals, and voluntary workers.

Good practice is shown in registration, identifying possibleneeds, and access to services for carers. As stated by a generalpractitioner, it is easy to see illness in a patient and to ignoreillness and stress in a carer. We all need to be aware of thephysical and psychological needs of carers.

The pros and cons of respite care are discussed in respect ofclients and carers alike. Needs to develop adequate communityservices, easily accessible to those needing support, areindicated.

This video is an impressive, open, honest appraisal of theircare, of a primary care team, and four articulate carers. Thecarers are of differing ages (some of whom are ailing

themselves), who look after young, old physically and/ormentally ill or impaired patients showing their variety of needs.Sadly, many receive little or no such awareness of their day-to-day anxieties, problems or needs.

This video challenges us all as professionals, family membersor neighbours to be aware of these needs of carers who havebeen or are looking after family members and are neverperceived as having health or psychological problems of theirown.

Today’s shorter hospital stays and early discharge to homebring increasing loads on to family caring members. Often,carers are becoming increasingly older and unfit themselves and need to be supported in their non-stop coping with a caring role.

The need for improved access to support people, developingcommunity services and a method of good practice are wellillustrated. It is a timely reminder to physiotherapy managersthat health promotional needs of carers should be included intheir annual planning and service development bids.

This would be a useful physiotherapy service and multi-disciplinary team in-service training video and a physiotherapystudent training tool as well as for the primary care teammembers to whom it is mainly directed.

Ann M D Grimley FCSP

Who Cares for the Carer?

Human Kinetics, Leeds1999 (ISBN 8 88011 527 0). 361 pages

edited by Richard Ray and Diane Weise-Bjornstal £34.50The editors set out, in this excellent book, to enable sportsmedicine practitioners to maximise their ability to interacteffectively with patients by improving their counselling skills, and to help therapists recognise when professional interventionis required. It is a valuable long-awaited text for bothundergraduate and graduate athletic trainers, physiotherapistsand physicians. It is well written and presented with aninteractive style.

Key terms are clearly highlighted and case studies carefullyintroduced to bring the theoretical background alive.Contributions from an impressive list of authors have produceda comprehensive text that is well grounded in theory andrelevant research and still manages to maintain its readability.

The text is divided into three parts. The first is a little dry,introducing the reader to the counselling role. It is in parts 2 and3 that the book comes alive, helping to develop specific strategies

for counselling patients in typical settings. Particularly wellcovered and of concern to physiotherapists are the chapters on developing interaction and communication skills, andexplaining good strategies for delivering medical advice andrehabilitation programmes.

Physiotherapists working both in team environments and withindividuals will welcome advice on dealing with athletes’responses to injury, ethical issues which often arise, substanceabuse, eating disorders, recognising and helping athletes to copewith stress and anxiety, and the response to catastrophic injury.Chapter 15, encouraging rehabilitation adherence, written byCraig Fisher is especially innovative and informative in itsapproach to this challenging area.

If there is any criticism of this book it is its length which is alittle off-putting, and its lack of specificity to sports medicineprocesses currently in practice in the UK. However, anytherapists working in the field of sports medicine will find theirmanagement of injuries refined by reading this enjoyable book.

Helen Dawes MCSP MMedSci

Counselling in Sports Medicine