Practical physiotherapy with older people - Lucinda Smyth

Contrary to popular belief, practice of physiotherapy with elderly patients is no easy option. In addition to grappling with the effects of multipathology it presents problems of accommodating to the patients' altering physiological state and the accumulating life events of older age. There are challenges of ethics in decision making. In therapeutic management it is sometimes hard to know where to begin, what to try, and when to stop or offer something eise. The work offers both satisfaction and despair, frustration and enormous interest. Despite the existence of many specialist textbooks on medicine and physiotherapy, it is widely feit there is a place for a basic guide to physiotherapy with elderly people. This book aims to provide guidance and insights based on the writers' experience, as weil as from the current literature. Good practice must be holistic in its breadth of knowledge and attitude to the individual, but meticulous in attention to detail in examination and treatment as for a patient of any age.