President's Message

By Christina Howard, PT, MPT
4th Quarter 2017

2018 is around the corner and every transition into fall and winter reminds me of the importance of reflection, resilience, and renewal.  Derek Fenwick, our President and board member for the last seven years, has been a tremendous source of personal and professional support as I begin my new leadership role in the OPTA. Thank you, Derek, for inviting me to use the final 2017 Oregon Log edition to start my first in a series of periodical messages to our members.

This year is closing with even more ambiguity around healthcare and healthcare reform. The forces at work that affect healthcare access, quality, and equity will continue to demand political action and advocacy from the physical therapy profession. The award winning #ChoosePT campaign is one example of how we can collectively increase visibility for the role physical therapy plays in improving public health. Oregon averages three deaths a week from opioid overdose. Do we have an opioid epidemic, or do we have an opioid epidemic and a pain management epidemic? A consensus report published this year by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine recommends comprehensive pain management education for providers and facilitated reimbursement for comprehensive pain management care. Our interdisciplinary 2017 OPTA Pain Symposium continuing education event held in September is a strong example of how our association and its members are leading the effort to advance pain science and comprehensive pain management education.  Undoubtedly, we have more work to do to improve how we manage pain.

Over the next two years, we should prepare to provoke some disruptive conversations that hold us equally, if not more, accountable for positively influencing the social determinants of health in our country and here in Oregon.  If we believe that movement is medicine, then we should take actions that promote movement as a means to both prevention and wellness. The SOAR activity day in Bend is a strong example of how the OPTA and its member-leaders held an inclusive recreational event for persons with disabilities and chronic conditions. The OPTA continues its health promotion advocacy through a grant from The National Association of Chronic Disease Directors, which will tap into our collective strengths in promoting movement as an integrated component of health promotion. These OPTA efforts were initiated by members who had an idea, identified an opportunity for improving the movement system, and reached
out to the OPTA for support and partnership. Looking forward, I’d like to encourage each of you to reflect on what you might want to create, join, or support that will increase the visibility of physical therapy as an instrument for health
and change in our communities.

We have our strategic planning meeting this December, and Amy Stork of Solid Ground Consulting will facilitate our discussion and planning for 2018. A primary focus of our meeting will be connecting priority goals to our mission, which are informed by our membership surveys, leadership roles and responsibilities, membership capacity, and resources. The board also has a strong commitment to closing the communication loop. We value transparency in our plan development, planning processes, progress, and outcomes with all of you. Amy will help us start 2018 with a robust framework for each of us to implement in the name of our mission and goals, and I look forward to sharing it with all of you in future communications and at our Annual Conference scheduled on March 10, 2018.

I’d like to take this opportunity to share with you the steps I’m choosing to improve my physical therapy leadership effectiveness. The APTA is a tremendous source of support, and I have reached out to the APTA Vice President, Lisa Saladin, PT, PhD, to come to Oregon for our annual conference and share her expertise with you and the board. The APTA National Student Conclave in Portland gave me some fresh perspectives on leadership and advocacy from our student leaders and their advocates. I meet regularly with our new Executive Director, Kori Hasti, and I am very excited to have such an organized and proactive staff person to help the OPTA develop practices that will result in improvement and value for our members.

Finally, I’d like to encourage you to reach out to me anytime you have a question, idea, or concern so we can collaborate and consider possibilities. We are as collectively strong as our members, and I will be relying on all of you to help the OPTA meet its mission and goals.  Finally, I can’t say enough about what a deep leadership bench we have in the OPTA. Your past and future board members and committee chairs and members genuinely walk the walk when it
comes to leadership, service, and advocacy. On a rainy October Saturday in Portland, at least 12 OPTA members provided resumé feedback to SPTAs and SPTs who attended the APTA NSC – in that group were five past OPTA
presidents. Each one came up to me and encouraged me to call them anytime I felt the need for future help or advice. That says a lot about the OPTA, and I’m privileged to have such excellent and compassionate mentors who
care so deeply about physical therapy.

Thank you all for giving me this opportunity.