References to the WCPT in the NZSP Annual Report

1983 Lesley Askew representative - Committee is to be restructured.

1986 page 5 - 10th Congress in Sydney coming,  there will be a Wellington based post congress course-  “Mechanical Therapy of the Lumbar Spine by Robin McKenzie.  Boycott of the Sydney congress proposed by Danish Physiotherapy Association as its formal request to have South Africa excluded from WCPT has been rejected.  NZ supported the WCPT Executive

1987 page 5 - Congress held in Sydney - first in southern hemisphere for 20 years.  Held every 4 years.  NZ Speakers or chairperson appeared in the programme every day.  The AGM could not finalise business because it remained inquorate due more to the expense of international travel  than the planned boycott.  Topics were discussed but not concluded,  so a special meeting is to be held in London in July 1988.  The NZSP WCPT Committee has been grateful for the input from many physiotherapists to assist in completing the international questionnaires on Geriatrics. The WCPT has contracted with WHO to review,  comment and make recommendations on future physiotherapy services to the elderly.

1988 page 6 - A special meeting in London in July made progress to update the functioning of the confederation.   Major alterations agreed to include one vote per country instead of one vote per 1000 members,  and an acceptance of regionalisation.  Jennifer Pryor and Ian Searle represented NZ at the meeting.  The NZSP submitted comment on Strategic Plan for WCPT,  Role of Physiotherapy in Geriatrics, Regionalisation,  Differential Congress fees.

1989  pages 2 & 5.  NZ is now part of the Asia/Pacific region under the new WCPT structure.  WCPT released its report on “The role of physiotherapists in the Care of Elderly People.”  The report highlighted the need for Geriatrics to be accepted as a specialist field.

1990  page 5.  Erwin Drok as NZ representative attended the inaugural meeting of the Asia Pacific Region of the WCPT in Hong Kong in June 1990.  Regionalisation by WCPT is proceeding slowly.  WCPT is moving towards the establishment of SIGs (IFOMT is already accepted as one)  This will allow the ready interaction of different groups internationally in their fields of special interest.

1991  pages 2 & 5.  The 11th International Congress was held in London from 28 July to 2 August.  NZSP had an attractive stand at the Trades Exhibition.  Many SIGs held meetings during the week - some for the first time.  The General Meeting attended by 43 countries ratified the Regionalisation Plan which enables individual regions to pursue areas of common interest.  The other significant restructuring concerned the Executive - Each region now has a representative  on Executive with expenses now paid for by the world body rather than the member’s own country s in the past.  Miss Doreen Bauer of Australia is the Asia Pacific representatives.  Brian Davey, World President completed his term of office at this meeting.  Although domiciled in Australia Brian is a New Zealander.  Next World Congress will be in Washington but before then the WCPT is hosting a Private Practitioners Congress in Hong Kong in November 1993.

1992 page 5.  NZ focus has been with the Asia/Western Pacific Region.  Geographic location and the cost of travel have l limited the amount of interaction the Asia Western Pacific member countries can have compared with their European Region counterparts.  Attempts to encourage communication via newsletters and faxes has met with limited success,  but the Australian Physiotherapy Association generously set up an Asia Pacific Physiotherapy Development Fund to provide financial support for physiotherapy related projects in the Asia Western Pacific Region.  A regional meeting was held on 2 December 1992 at the time of the WCPT Private Practitioners meeting in Hong Kong where NZ was represented by Michael Lamont.  The WCPT and the International institute on Aging (United Nations, Malta) developed a joint course and called for nominations for tutors for the courses from amongst members countries.

The WCPT Executive continued its programme of holding meetings in different members countries.

1993 page 7 - A meeting of the Asia Pacific Regional representatives was held in conjunction with a meeting and conference organised by Taiwan’s Association.  NZ sent an apology to the meeting which only lasted a couple of hours and would hardly have justified the expense of getting to Taipei.  The next meeting will be held in Jakarta and again the National Executive have declined to support the funding for a representative from NZ to attend. 

The WCPT meeting in 1995 will review the success or otherwise of the regions which have been in existence since the 1991 Congress in London. 

Whilst Executive supports the concept of assistance to countries within the region which are less well developed, especially in regard to Education and health facilities,  the huge expanse of ocean make it unrealistic for NZ to contemplate being an active member of the group in the near future other than by telecommunication.  International Developments - the WCPT and the International Institute on Aging ran a joint course during 1993 and Clare O’Hagan from Christchurch was amongst the students at the course. ($1700 from the Scholarship fund)  Various documents were received from WCPT related to streamlining the next meeting. A motion will be put at the 1995 General Meeting “That the title World Confederation for Physical Therapy be changed to “World Confederation of Physiotherapists.

1994 page 7 - NZ received regular updates during the year on the preparations for the Congress in Washing DC in June 1995.  Executive reaffirmed its policy that the National President be the official representative of the NZSP at the General Meeting .  The President attended the 5th Regional meeting of ACPT-AWPR in Jakarta in October.  It was agreed that the Region would publish two newsletters per year with contributions from each country as well as a calendar of courses and conferences in member countries.  Regional Rules were discussed and revised to reflect the needs of the area which contains the greatest population base in the world and is also separated by vast quantities of water making travel to other countries both costly and time consuming.  WCPT Executive surveyed member countries on their position in regard to the regionalisation of WCPT - it was made clear to Regions that they should amend their Rules to reflect the Regions’ needs and diversity.  The WCPT draft Declarations of Principle and Position Statements were circulated for comment in 1994 and the Society was satisfied with the statements.  The WCPT is in a sound financial position and is looking at ways of making funds for special projects more accessible to the member countries.

Workshop on Victims of Torture.  This fully funded project sponsored by the Danish Rehabilitation Centre of Victims of Torture will be held in Denmark in March 1995.   Barbara Guthrie will attend.

1995 page 10 - The 12th International WCPT Congress “Dimensions of Excellence” and the 13th General Meeting held in Washington DC was the highlight of the year  for thousands of physiotherapists from around the world. 13 countries were admitted as full members bringing the total number to 67.  NZ was represented  by Margot Skinner and Barbara Hetherington.  Seven Articles of Association were presented for amendment - the major purpose of the changes was technical to enable better clarification of roles and reflect the change to Regionalisation.  One of the most important was related to education where there was unanimous support for physiotherapy entry level education to be based on University level studies of a minimum of four year independently validated and accredited as being at a standard that affords graduates full statuary and professional recognition.  Over 7,000 Physiotherapy registered for the conference;  over 3,000 exhibitors set up trade displays.  Over 64 member countries of the WCPT and registrants from 14 other countries were present - over 40 registrants were only there because of financial help from the APTA and WCPT.  Over $10,000 from pre-Congress fund raising was placed in the WCPT Development fund

Ten or more concurrent sessions were run at any one time throughout the five days of Congress.

The NZ Stand received much favourable comment.  NZ was hosted by the North Carolina Chapter of the American Physical Therapy Assn

1996 page 10 - PR brochures on WCPT were produced,  and updated WCPT articles of Association and Declarations of Principles and Position Statements were published.  The WCPT publishes a regular newsletter - WCPT News - an Annual Report , information leaflets and reports of WCPT event and projects.  The five Regional groups also publish regular newsletters,  informing regional members of the happenings specific to each country.  This year the annual Asia Western Pacific Region meeting was held in Kuala Lumpur in September.  NZSP did not send an official delegate,  but voted by proxy.

1997 page 8 - WCPT worked steadily on a number of projects including the WCPT Taskforce established to address international issues related to physical therapy education  recruitment and credentialling.  Reciprocity between registering authorities was also considered.  Lee attended the 1997 Hong Kong International Conference as the guest of the Hong Kong Physiotherapy Association.  Closer links were set up with Malaysia and Fiji,  National Executive have since agreed that the NZSP should fund a delegate to each of the AWPR meetings,  as well as the WCPT Congress every four year.  NZ supplied photographs and reports of happenings in NZ for the AWPR newsletter,  which is produced by Australia who presently fund the secretariat.  As the world gets “smaller”  the importance of WCPT is more apparent,  and there is a move by WCPT to consolidate the knowledge and expertise that different countries have developed.

1998 page 8 - In March 1998 WCPT Executive Committee accepted recomendations develop guidelines for a standard aproach to the documentation of education programmes;  to collect statistics on the extent of international recuritment,  and to explore issues related to standards of education and practice.  This will continue into 1999-2000 work period.