Physiotherapy work experience placements

Global Volunteer Projects

Vacancy: Physiotherapy work experience placements
Company: Global Volunteer Projects
Category: Gap year projects (Healthcare, Childcare)
Dates: ongoing
Cost: £995-£1,295 for one month
Support In Place: Local overseas managers in all locations
Age limit: 17-70

Physiotherapy is rarely offered in hospitals overseas. Where it is, it is often expensive or lacking in sophistication with techniques and equipment often outdated in comparison to what we’re used to at home. However, by spending time on a physiotherapy project you will be able to work with physiotherapists that offer very good treatment despite the handicaps. You will experience techniques we’ve forgotten about and alternatives methods of therapy not widely used in the more developed world such as massage and acupuncture in China.

Physiotherapy projects are not just an opportunity to get some great experience on your CV, they are also about learning skills you perhaps won’t be taught at home. A project like this is also an opportunity in many cases to help children and adults who are less fortunate than us.

Project locations:

China

Our physiotherapy projects in China are based at a disabled person’s clinic in the suburbs of Beijing. Sadly the clinic receives no money from the government so it is privately funded and relies on donations from the public.

As with general medical practice in China, the hospital uses Chinese massage and acupuncture alongside conventional rehabilitation methods. If you are interested, you can learn some of these methods from the doctors.

The hospital mainly treats children. Sadly some of these children have been abandoned and live as orphans in the hospital.

Your working day usually starts at 8am and finishes around lunch time. You will spend most of your time helping the children with their exercises.

Mexico

Our physiotherapy volunteers work in a Physiotherapy Clinic in Puerto Vallarta. The clinic was established in 1981 by a group of volunteers who wanted to provide help to people who are suffering from disabilities or people recovering from serious fractures that were unable to pay for their rehabilitation therapy. The clinic relies heavily on donations and in the last five years has helped over 4,500 patients.

You will start your first week by completing an induction course covering the work of the clinic and the basic procedures and workshops that you will be asked to assist with. The clinic runs a number of workshops which are tailored to the injury or disability and you will be helping in a variety of these. Although physiotherapy makes up the bulk of the workshops, you will also be asked to help with language therapy, massage and feeding the disabled patients.