Physiotherapist at Center for Victims of Torture

Under the supervision of the Physiotherapy Trainer and in close collaboration with other disciplines:

The Physiotherapist primary physiotherapy responsibilities include:

• Provide appropriate physiotherapy assessment to clients throughout their episode of care at CVT in order to continuously evaluate their progress and their changing needs for intervention and establish treatment goals and plan.
• Determine appropriate treatment techniques for war trauma and torture survivors based on solid clinical reasoning. Interventions could include education, exercise therapy and manual therapy in the context of group work or within individual sessions.
• Educate and advise clients and their care takers about prevention and/or self-management of their condition.
• Take responsibility for maintaining professional development by keeping up to date with evidence based practice for managing CVT clients.
• Assist in the daily clinical operations to ensure clients are given appointments in a timely manner, group work activities and room designation is scheduled and coordinated fairly, equipment is shared and organized appropriately and follow other CVT client procedures.
• Maintain up- to- date clinical records and statistical data and ensure that all required documentation is completed and stored in a timely and professional manner.
• Ensure that all work with clients observes CVT’s confidentiality policies and that ethical practices are observed at all times and are in accordance with the WCPT standards.
• Provide interpretation between clients and other CVT staff members and assist with translating written material when needed.
• Ensure the cleanliness of treatment spaces and equipment used with clients as well as maintain a clean, professional appearance.
• Is proactive and participatory in developing the Physiotherapy service and in helping support/orientate colleagues.
• Attend all regularly scheduled trainings and meetings necessary for professional development and team coordination and upon request.
• When necessary to accommodate programmatic needs, work after hours or on weekend days when requested.

The physiotherapist’s primary responsibilities working as a multidisciplinary team member include:

• Case manage clients’ interdisciplinary care through regular communication with CVT’s psychosocial counselors (PSCs), Psychosocial Trainers and social workers to best identify clients’ on-going needs.**
• Consistently communicate prior to and throughout client sessions with other disciplines to supply and receive relevant information about the background and progress of clients as well as refer those who require other specific medical attention.**
• Provide and attend internal trainings to orient new staff and provide on-going interdisciplinary understanding and discussion.**
• Recognize and respect boundaries between disciplines and establish regular communication mechanisms to address client urgent and/or on-going concerns.**

The Physiotherapist’s primary responsibilities to develop community awareness, understanding and engagement relating to the rehabilitation needs of individuals who have experienced war trauma and/or torture include:

• Assist with CVTs community outreach and awareness, education, and sensitization campaigns and programs when needed.**
• Liaise with CVT PSCs to identify children, teenagers, men, and women whose physical functioning may have been affected by war related experiences and encourage them to approach CVT for support.**
• Assist in designing, planning, logistics, implementing and facilitating external training programs for local decision makers, community members and local and international NGO’s, and government/ministry staff on trauma and health issues in order to develop a more supportive environment for people whose physical functioning has been affected by experiences of torture and war trauma.
• Contribute to completing the documentation and reporting of external trainings.
• Assist with developing referral systems and encourage collaboration between local groups and leaders, local and international NGOs, and government ministries.
• Attend interagency meetings to improve service delivery to our client groups and access opportunities to forward CVT’s work.

The Physiotherapist’s primary responsibilities to promote self-care through support and supervision include:

• Attend regular support, debriefing, case conferences, and/or supervision meetings to ensure information and skill-sharing.
• Set and follow through on a personal self-care schedule to avoid burnout and vicarious traumatization.
• Recognize and seek support when needed from internal and/or external resources to address concerns of secondary trauma in an expedient manner.
• Provide formal feedback to colleagues when requested for on-going performance evaluation and development.