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I have been watching a programme on BBC2 Inventing the Impossible: the big life fix https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b09g5hwf The BBC bill it as “The UK’s leading inventors create ingenious new solutions to everyday problems and build life-changing solutions for people in desperate need” All the people featured have a strong desire to achieve something but have a barrier to overcome. Here are a few examples: Ian has Cerebral Palsy and wants to sail his own boat Pollyanna is a lower limb amputee and wants to be a ballerina Graham has a spinal cord injury and wants to snowboard again Through inventive technology and engineering, The Big Life Fix team design and develop prototype inventions to create solutions. Once a created, the team refine the prototype into a workable result for the individual.…

2020 has been a difficult year for many people, me included. I lost a close relative during lockdown (not COVID related) and, like many others, had no work from March to August. Also like many others, I was able to claim furlough, but this had its limitations. When the time came to restart work, I expected things would get back to some kind of normal. Instead, I only had enough work to cover one day a week, which was far from ideal. Apart from being frustrating, the lack of income was also a big problem. Thankfully, as an experienced neuro physiotherapist, there were options available to me. I found that locum jobs frequently became available and I found a job with the Leeds Community Neuro Rehab Team (CNRT) in the…

Positive Points: Socially Distanced Training Earlier in the month I attended a two-day First Aid at Work (FAW) requalification training course. This qualification must be updated every three years and was originally scheduled to be held in June. As with a lot of events this year, it was postponed and had to be conducted with social distancing measures in place. I couldn’t help but wonder how this COVID compliant training was going to work. However, it was clear that the training providers, Underwood Training, had put a lot of thought into how the  qualification could be achieved without the usual interactions between trainees. These measures started even before the training itself did. Prior to attending the training we had completed a COVID questionnaire declaring ourselves symptom free and agreeing not to attend if we developed symptoms.…

My husband and I recently bought a new car. He was driving it one day, for around 2 hours, and found himself  becoming increasingly uncomfortable. As in most vehicles, the drivers’ seat is multi-adjustable. The angle and height of the seat, it can be moved forward and backwards, and the angle of the back rest is adjustable. The problem was that he just could not get it right. Humans evolved to be upright on two feet. The human body was not designed to remain in one position for prolonged periods or to sit for lengths of time. However, modern life often dictates that this is the way we do spend a lot of our time. We work at our desks, we commute long distances, we relax on the sofa. No…

Positive Points: The New Normal Over the past few months, we all seem to have developed a new vocabulary. Phrases such as 'social distancing’, ‘shielding’ and ‘support bubble’ which would once have been received with uncertainty are now part of our everyday language. However, this is only one of the effects of the COVID-19 crisis. As for many businesses the imposed lockdown has had a direct effect on Positive Positioning. The reality of the  aforementioned  phrases has meant we haven’t been able to maintain our usual level of interaction with our client group, most of whom are classed as vulnerable. We work with a significant number of clients in the hydrotherapy pool. Unfortunately, this has not been open for many weeks, so we haven’t been able to offer this support.…