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Jerusha Mather is gaining some well-earned attention both in the medical community and the literary world. On top of completing a PhD in neuroscience, the 25-year-old has just smashed out her first book of poetry, 'Burnt bones and beautiful butterflies'. The book's title is inspired by Jerusha's lived experience with cerebral palsy. "I based it on a thought that beautiful things come out of challenging circumstances. Hence, the term; burnt bones and beautiful butterflies. Life throws at you negative and positive things, but there is goodness in everything when you find the courage to look deeper. These are the key messages I am trying to convey in my book," she explains.

When Michelle Sexton first embarked on the journey to get her son Liam a bike, she wanted to give him access to something that would empower him to maintain his mobility, while allowing him to have an outlet. She knew that a customised bike while extremely freeing and crucial for Liam’s quality of life, would only become a reality through thoughtful collaboration with providers, therapists, and the assistance of Liam’s Support Coordinator – Mark Boyce.

I’ve lost track of the conversations that I’ve had with friends, family, and colleagues – where I can see the exhaustion plastered on their faces through a screen, and the conversations echo constant disappointment.  As someone with cerebral palsy, the COVID-19 epidemic created a scenario where I was told I had to work from home. In a pre-COVID world, it had rarely occurred to me to negotiate to work from home, as I was someone accustomed to long and tiring commutes to work. 

Welcome to Ask Kelly. The current COVID-19 pandemic has had a major impact on how we live, work, learn and interact. While we have been offering a free telehealth service here at CPSN for quite a while now, COVID-19 has seen in a rise in the use of telehealth to access a wide range of medical care and therapies. So, I wanted to explore more about telehealth, what it is, and how you can benefit from it during this time of isolation.

Physiotherapy was a weekly fixture for the first 18 years of my life. It became cloaked by a sense of normalcy, and sometimes it even attracted curiosity or scorn from my peers in school. When I turned 18, all my connections to allied health were cut.

From 11:59pm on Sunday 2 August 2020, all Victorians must wear a face covering when they leave home, no matter where they live. In this edition of Ask Kelly, I thought I would share the most common questions I’ve been asked about masks so far, as well as provide some resources about disposable and fabric face masks.