Physiotherapists not only help people but they actually change people’s lives by assisting them to overcome the limitations of a physical handicap.
Debita Harripersaud, a leading physiotherapist here, says “no textbook can define the effect we have on our patients. To see a patient break out in tears of happiness because he or she was able to walk for the first time in months or to see a patient taken off the life support machine and breathing independently was all the validation needed that I had chosen the right profession.”
Harripersaud, referred to by patients and colleagues as Miss Persaud, recalls her introduction into the world of work. After graduating from her alma mater, Queen’s College, she taught third and fourth formers there, Spanish, Geography and Biology.
Then she became a student again, enrolling at the University of the West Indies at the Mona Campus to study physiotherapy and graduating in 2001 as one of the top students.
She began her first clinical placement as a student in 1999 and to her it was exciting to deal with real patients and being able to put all the knowledge gained in the classroom into practice.
“I soon discovered though that physiotherapy is not simply exercises or utilizing techniques learnt in class; it is all about patient-therapist relationships. We are taught how to relieve pain, how to help someone run faster; and even to retrain someone to walk,” she said.
“We help people – this may appear as a broad statement – but one that can undeniably be applied to our profession,” Harripersaud commented.
“We change people’s lives not just because we help them with their physical needs but because we care. We take the time to listen to their stories and focus on what is important to them.”
But what drives her as a physiotherapist? “When people ask me why I chose physiotherapy I say because I want to help people. At the end of the day, I want to know that I have made a difference to someone’s life, no matter how small. Ultimately, the small changes culminate to a bigger change – so do we make people stronger? Yes — in every sense of the word.”
Today her substantive designation is Superintendent of Physiotherapy in the Ministry of Health, with oversight in some of the regional services and centrally overseeing the activities of the Palms Neuro-Rehabilitation Unit as well as the Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation.
She is also one of the key opinion leaders/trainers for the Guyana Diabetic Foot Project launched in 2008 and currently in its second phase. In addition, she is the current team physiotherapist for Guyana’s Golden Jaguars.
Harripersaud also holds the position of secretary in the Guyana Physiotherapy Association. And through her the association voices its views on regularizing the practice of the profession.
She and the other few qualified professionals who practice this discipline are deeply concerned that “many charlatans are masquerading as therapists.”
She noted that from the moment someone gains an inkling of knowledge in exercise, fitness or massage “he or she instantly transforms this image to the public as a physiotherapist and in turn fleece and extort large sums of money for substandard and unsafe ‘therapy’.”
Legislation
In an effort to preserve the integrity of the profession and more importantly to safeguard the public she pointed out that the association still faces a mammoth task of public awareness but it can definitely benefit from legislation.
Harripersaud maintained that it is imperative that Guyana establishes a Council For Allied Health Professionals similar to those formed in Trinidad and Tobago and Jamaica.
This council, she explained, will have a positive impact for everyone in that not only will it be a regulatory body on the legal front but will aid in professional development through continuing education for allied health professionals, while continually raising the bar for good practice and by extension quality service.
This writer has had firsthand experience of the skills and patience of Harripersaud and her colleagues, having benefitted from their firmness which is applied with gentleness and friendliness.
