The birth of a physiotherapy organization in the UAE (United Arab Emirates) documenting the first steps

Daniel Rivano-Fischer, RPT, MSc Board member and newsletter editor of the Emirates Therapy Special Interest Group; Public Relations Committee member of The Emirates Therapy and Rehabilitation Society; Physiotherapy department, Tawam hospital, Al Ain, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates (UAE)

Introduction

The United Arab Emirates (UAE)

• The UAE was founded in 1971. It is a federation of seven emirates located in one of the corners of the Arabian Peninsula

• It is roughly the size of Portugal and four-fifths of its land area is arid desert

• The population has grown from 580.000 in 1970 to 3.100.000 in 2000; between 70% to 80% are expatriates

Physiotherapy in the UAE

• There are two institutions in the UAE providing physical therapy training: the University of Sharjah and The Gulf Medical College of

Ajman

• The first batch ever of locally trained physiotherapists should emerge from the Sharjah University by June of 2003

• The majority of the physiotherapists working in the UAE are expatriates, most of them already belonging to their own countries’

organizations

• No physical therapy organization has previous to 1998 been reported in the UAE

• The UAE is not a WCPT member

Graphic Production: Ivanna Lizarriturri, for the Department of Medical Education, Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences. United Arab Emirates University.

Purpose

The purpose of this report was to document the work and vision of the Emirates Therapy Special Interest Group, ETSIG, the pioneer

organization of physiotherapists in the UAE

Chronology

June 1998

• 3rd of June 1998, in a meeting in Dubai attended by 24 rehabilitation professionals, mainly physiotherapists, the Emirates Therapy

Special Interest Group, ETSIG, was founded

• From this group two physiotherapists became key persons in the ETSIG’s board, Susan Waller the Chair of the board and Cathy

Neyland who became the Secretary

• The ETSIG was established as a non-profit organization, no membership fee was asked

• Other professionals like occupational therapists, physiatrists, osteopaths, etc were welcomed

• The main activities of the ETSIG were the publishing and free distribution of a Newsletter to all it’s members and the organization of

professional lectures and workshops open to all

October 1998

• The 1st ETSIG Newsletter, edited by Cathy Neyland, came out

• The Newsletter was to be distributed 2 weeks before general meetings, announcing lectures workshops and other professional

activities, documenting the Minutes from each of the meetings, documenting the work of the group’s board and advocating for

membership engagement in professional matters

May 1999

• The ETSIG’s board approved the group’s logo

• The American Hospital in Dubai became the permanent venue for the ETSIG’s meetings and lectures

October 1999

• The board’s chair Susan Waller approaches federal authorities aiming for an official recognition of the ETSIG

March 2000

• Attempts by the board to have the ETSIG officially recognized failed due to the lack of enough national physiotherapists

• The ETSIG’s board takes the strategic decision to join the Emirates Medical Association, EMA

• The main purpose for this move was to gain official status by forming a society of therapists within the medical association

• From this moment the ETSIG began to recommend its members to join the EMA by submitting their professional certificates and

paying the EMA membership fees

November 2001

• On November 8th, 2001 the Rehabilitation Society of the Emirates Medical Association, EMA, was established, the first official

organization in the UAE comprised of a majority of physiotherapists was born

• This day the ETSIG ceased to exist

• During its 3 years of existence the ETSIG had in its membership records an average of 80 members from all of the UAE

• The ETSIG held 17 meetings with an average attendance of 34 members

• The ETSIG board had an average of 6 members

Material

This report was written using the records kept by the ETSIG in the form of the membership database, the minutes of all the seventeen

meetings held by the board, and the eight Newsletters distributed to the members between 1999 and 2000

Relevance

• The documentation of the steps taken by physiotherapists in the United Arab Emirates to consolidate their professional

organization has an obvious significance. Any given professional organization undoubtedly builds on its history

• The experience of forming the first physiotherapy organization in a country with mainly expatriate physiotherapists may serve as

an example to other physiotherapy professional groups from the region where similar conditions prevail

• For the WCPT, to have a document where the early stages of the formation of a future member state's Association are described

must be relevant

• Among the eight countries from the Persian (Arabic) Gulf region only Kuwait and Iran are members of the WCPT

• This fact emphasizes the regional importance of engaging and supporting all physiotherapists working with establishing

professional organizations

Conclusion

• The ETSIG, the pioneer organization of physiotherapists in the UAE, was a product of a few therapists’ hard work. It shows a pattern

of few people working for the benefit of many that organizations like the WCPT should take in consideration when approaching the

region

• The sacrifices and tenacity of Susan Waller and Cathy Neyland makes them an example to all those engaged in professional

activities. Through the enormous effort of these two therapists the ETSIG grew from being a mere unofficial group of therapists from

different countries coming together, to become a professional organization with national aspirations and goals

• In this process, the physiotherapists in the UAE tended to include other less numerically represented professions such as

occupational therapists, speech therapists, chiropractors, osteopaths, physiatrists, etc when building their organization, a mirror of the

natural team approach often seen at workplaces

References 1. Emirates Therapy Special Interest Group (ETSIG), Membership database, November 2001

2. Emirates Therapy Special Interest Group (ETSIG), Newsletter, Volumes 1 & 2, 1998 to 2000

3. Emirates Therapy Special Interest Group (ETSIG), Board Minutes, June 1998 to October 2001

Acknowledgements Thanks to Ivanna Lizarriturri, graphic designer, creator of the logo of the ETSIG and the ETRS. Thanks to the ETSIG board members not mentioned before:

Wilna Foulkes, Mats Wiksborg, Thabet Al Jarrad, Paul Johnson, Philippa Spooner

Contact: Daniel Rivano-Fischer. E-mail: ivadani@hotmail.com

Geographical location of the UAE

Logo of the Emirates Therapy

Special Interest Group

Logo of the Emirates Therapy

and Rehabilitation Society

One of the workshop of the

Emirates Therapy Special Interest Group