The three-way health partnership between the Accident Compensation Corporation (ACC), the musculoskeletal physiotherapist and the client analysed through critical theory and postmodern lenses

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to employ critical theory and postmodern world views to investigate and critique aspects of physiotherapy practice. The paper initially focuses on the power balance within the three-way health partnership between the Accident Compensation Corporation (ACC), the musculoskeletal physiotherapist and the client. Next, it addresses the concepts of knowledge and truth within practice and identifies the epistemological hierarchy that exists between discourses. The paper finds that stakeholders in health care are stratified in a hierarchical system dominated by an established order. However, although tiered, all stakeholders are codependently linked and rely on one another to achieve health-related goals. Furthermore, as well as oppressing, power is used positively to educate members of society regarding good health practices. Currently, medical models are driven by a scientific epistemology, crowning evidence-based practice (EBP) as the gold standard approach to healthcare. But, conversely, physiotherapy’s large subjective component cannot be  overlooked. Ultimately, physiotherapists need to recognize the dominance of EBP and learn to shape knowledge from a wide variety of sources above and beyond statistically significant health science.