62nd Annual Conference & 63rd National Council Meeting

The 62nd Annual Conference & 63rd National Council Meeting of the Federation was held at the Brentwood hotel in Wellington during the weekend 20-22 March 2009.

Speakers during the weekend included:

• Dr Sarah Dean who addressed the meeting on two of her research topics: low back and chronic pain, and health psychology as applied to rehabilitation.
• Sharon Downes of the health and disability advocacy service outlined her role as an advocate in acting for individuals and explained the process in making a complaint.
• Fran Humen, a clinical psychologist, and Les Eldridge, an upper limb amputee, spoke on “a modern cognitive approach to phantom pain; an extension on current literature”.
• Ray Binet, manager of the Wellington limb centre, and Christine Bonallack, a wound healing consultant, spoke about stump breakdown and skin problems.

At the end of a productive and enjoyable weekend, paralympian Paula Tesoriero gave an inspiring motivational talk on the lead up to and her success at the paralympics in Beijing in 2008.

Officers elected for the forthcoming year were: 

Wally Garrett (president), 

Kerry Wilfred-Riley (vice president), 

Lorraine Peacock (national coordinator/treasurer), and 

Lee Cook, Colleen Mundt, Ava Thomas, and Wayne Vass (committee members).