An Introduction to Physiotherapy and Rehabilitation

The history of the physiotherapy profession, which has existed in the world for more than a hundred years, dates to ancient times. It is known that in ancient times people used a wide variety of empirical methods such as religious, superstitious, and philosophical approaches to cope with pain. Although, the history of the physiotherapy profession does not go back to very old years, it is a professional health field that is accepted and developing all over the world. Since the early 19th century physiotherapy education developed rapidly. With the diversity of evidence-based physiotherapy practices, the definition of physiotherapist and the working areas of physiotherapists have also expanded. In the 1980s, the World Confederation of Physical Therapy (WCPT) established physiotherapy undergraduate training and it has approved that the program be given at universities or schools at this level in all countries. The foundations of the physiotherapist profession in Turkey, was founded by Prof. Dr. İhsan Doğramacı in 1961 in Ankara. In the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC), the first Physiotherapy and Rehabilitation Department was established in 2010 during my deanship at the Faculty of Health Sciences, at the Eastern Mediterranean University. Due to the interest and demand for the physiotherapy profession, the number of universities providing physiotherapy and rehabilitation education is increasing rapidly in Turkey and the TRNC, as in many countries. The aim of Physiotherapy and Rehabilitation departments in higher education is to train graduates who are; equipped with the knowledge, skills and competences related to physiotherapy and rehabilitation to identify, prevent, and treat movement and functional disorders, to maintain a healthy life and to increase the quality of life; considering the benefit of society, investigative, inquisitive, questioning, lifelong learning, and evidence-based practice skills. The main purpose of our book is to provide an English source with up-to-date information, which is currently lacking in the field of physiotherapy literature in Turkey, for academics, physiotherapists, and physiotherapy students. The four sections of this book introduce physiotherapy profession and its history, physiotherapy treatment modalities and physical therapy and rehabilitation approaches and health terminology and concepts. This book provides a guide for physiotherapy students with its chapters containing fundamental information on measurement and evaluation methods, treatment approaches, physical principles of manual and physiotherapy modalities, physiological effects, application methods, indications, contraindications, and risks. Our book is a useful source of information for students new to Physiotherapy and Rehabilitation. The chapters were written in a plain language that is easy to understand, plenty of visuals were used, and it has been prepared as a summary without going into details. The authors of the book Introduction to Physiotherapy and Rehabilitation consists of our valuable clinical and academic colleagues, who are experts in their fields, from various national and international universities. We would like to express our gratitude to our esteemed academic and clinical friends, who accepted to be a chapter writer in this book without expecting anything in return, despite their heavy workloads, for their devoted work and contributions. We would like to thank all the valuable members of the Hippocrates publishing family especially, Ali Çelik and Hüseyin Çağlıkasap who contributed to this book by working with devotion and meticulousness at every stage of the book, fast and perfect printing of the book and by striving to reach every corner the country. We tried to create an evidence-based resource for our students, colleagues, and clinical scientists by summarizing the wide scope of Physiotherapy and Rehabilitation as much as possible. We hope that this book will be a reliable guide and useful source of information that sheds light on science. With my love and regards, Prof. Dr. Hülya Harutoğlu