Toronto Massage Therapy and Acupuncture Clinic by RMT » Bob Loblaw

Alternative Health Care at Your Neighbourhood Cuban Clinic

Ken Shim, RMT — Thu, 25 Mar 2010 13:18:16 +0000

Policlinico Guanabo

The following is based on interviews on January 6, 2009 with some of the staff at the Policlinico Guanabo, a state-funded physiotherapy clinic in Guanabo, a town 15km east of Havana. Treatment at the clinic, as in all Cuban health care facilities, is free of charge to Cubans.

After visiting the acupuncture ward at a Cuban hospital a few days earlier, I was curious how health care was provided in other environments. At the community level, the Policlinico Guanabo provides for all the health care needs of the town of Guanabo and its environs. There is a full range of medical personnel including a physiotherapy ward.

The physiotherapist was named Reinier. He was 27 years old and licensed in physiotherapy after completion of a 5 year program. He was also licensed in acupuncture after taking a specialization course. He headed the department and worked primarily with electronic therapeutic devices such as laser, magnetic gamma, ultra sound, Hivamat, as well as acupuncture. The machines were all very new, in good condition and surprisingly sleek and modern, in contrast to the clinic’s rustic appearance.

Reinier

Servilio was licensed in “cultura fisica” which literally translates to “physical culture”. I imagine that it means something similar to kinesiology. He is the graduate of a 3 year program with a specialization in rehabilitation. While Reinier works primarily with electronic therapeutic devices, Servilio does almost all of his work manually. He was 54 years old with 25 years of experience. He particularly enjoys working with children and was extremely proud to say that in his career, he has helped more than 15 handicapped children learn to walk. This was inspirational, but even more surprising was that the process only took a year on average. He has also helped 30 handicapped adults learn to walk. I loved how content he was in telling me this. How wonderful it must be to say that the thing they love most of their work or the thing that they are most proud of is that they helped 50 handicapped people learn to walk.

Servilio

Servilio has a standard education in cultura fisica, but he has taken courses, lectures and workshops in a wide variety of modalities. He has branched out his approach into quite a few alternative healing modalities which he regularly incorporates into his treatments. His treatments can contain any combination of massage, tai chi, reflexology, qi gong, acupressure, shiatsu, reiki, chakra healing, ear acupuncture, yoga, william technique, pilates and su jo.

In Canada these therapies are not uncommon, but you would almost never find them in a state run physiotherapy clinic. You would also never find these courses, workshops or treatments offered free of charge. These alternative therapies are strictly operated on a for profit basis outside of Canada’s government run medical system. We have access to natural healing but only if we can afford $20 a group session or $100 for a treatment. Unfortunately, this usually means that much of the market for alternative therapy in Canada choose it only after the western medical system fails them. There is a strong growing movement of people that are adopting alternative health care as a personal preference, but wouldn’t it be grand if we didn’t have to make a choice? What if the Cuban system could be adopted to other western countries and we received prescriptions for yoga, acupuncture, massage or Aspirin from our family doctor?

South Philadelphia High School Hides Racist Attacks against Asian Students

Ken Shim, RMT — Sat, 20 Mar 2010 12:47:30 +0000

This post has absolutely nothing to do with the regular themes of my blog, but as an Asain, I feel the need to help give issues like this some visibility. It is a story that will likely be buried by the media. That no one will ever hear about.

The administration of South Philadelphia High School has been hiding reports of racial violence for years. In the past 2 years 45 attacks against Asian students have been ignored. None of the attackers were disciplined. During an attack on December 9 2009, 7 Asian students ended up in the hospital. In protest, 50 Asian students staged a 7 day boycott. Even more unbelievably, 19 of the protesters were suspended and 14 were transferred to other schools.

A formal investigation was launched recently headed by retired judge James Giles. There have been numerous complaints from the witnesses interviewed that their testimony was cut short or the facts manipulated.

The original article can be found here.

Some news coverage here:

Heaven in a Cup

Ken Shim, RMT — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 13:55:00 +0000

I should almost rename the site to “Massage, Acupuncture & Ken’s stomach”. Here is another blog post about the wonderful things my clients are feeding me. Not quite about healthy living, but let’s call it Customer Appreciation.

I’d like to give a shout out to a certain client’s culinary skills. She has brought me little treats in the past, but this weekend she simply outdid herself. This weekend, she cooked me up a cup of lobster thermidore, which was absolutely superb. I really don’t know how I was ever so lucky as to deserve such great clients. But thank you very much.

Wedding Weekend

Ken Shim, RMT — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 16:49:17 +0000

Hi everyone, you’re probably going to assume that I am always on vacation after this one, but I will be off this weekend after I see a few clients this morning. I will be back to work on Monday. My lovely cousin Gina is getting married in Ottawa this weekend and I can’t miss the opportunity for some good old Trinidadian fruit cake. Have a great weekend.

Labour Day Weekend

Ken Shim, RMT — Fri, 04 Sep 2009 23:43:55 +0000

Hope everyone has a great weekend. I will be working at Body & Spine on Saturday, but will be taking the Sunday and Monday off. My schedule will be back to normal on Tuesday. Hope everyone enjoys summer’s last official weekend. They say the weather should be great Related posts:Holiday Hours Wedding Weekend Visceral Osteopathy [...] Related posts:

Holiday Hours

Ken Shim, RMT — Fri, 31 Jul 2009 23:48:18 +0000

I will be taking Saturday July 31 to Monday August 3 as a holiday to rest up for a bit. I look forward to seeing you next week Tuesday August 4. Cheers. Hope everyone has a wonderful weekend. Related posts:Labour Day Weekend Massage Clinic Open on Monday August 2 Civic Holiday Office Hours Update Related posts:

Happy Canada Day, eh?

Ken Shim, RMT — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 16:46:17 +0000

Hope everyone has a great Canada Day. Sorry but I won’t be available for treamtments today. I’ve decided to treat myself to a day off and hopefully enjoy some of the festivities. The Festival of Fire is top on my list. I will be available at my regular schedule from tomorrow. Cheers.

Why did I do this to myself?

Ken Shim, RMT — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 07:56:52 +0000

Well I have no one to blame but myself. I’d like to blame it on my internet guru, who suggested adding a blog to my website to help personalize the experience. It sounded like a wonderful idea at the time. I get the chance to let people know what I am up to; the new techniques I am learning; some self care approaches that could help clients with their healing; and on and on the list of positives went. So here I am working on reorganizing the website and installing a blog. Looks great. I’m happy with many of the changes, but at 2:30am, I’m not sure just how good a judge I am at the moment. Somehow the website is still up and running. Somehow I am lucid enough to write a blog at this hour despite my diet today which consisted of the richest chocolate brownies ever baked. My friend and fellow RMT, Denise Lackan baked them up yesterday and yes they are rich but something in my RMT training in nutrition tells me that it is not a healthy meal replacement. Anyhow, it’s late, I’m rambling, and I’m afraid that if any of my clients see this that they may lose all the respect they ever had for me. So I am signing off on this first ever blog post on my website. The future blogs should be a treat and much more professional.

Until next time,

Ken Shim, RMT