Ever thought that having fun or doing something fun is vital in the process of recovering? Well it is, in fact it is highly therapeutic.
Recently, Dr Keir Philip, from the Estcourt Provincial Hospital, his colleagues and patients have been taking an innovative approach to the care of Multidrug-resistant tuberculosis (MDR TB) patients by dancing their way to social, mental and physical wellbeing.

Over the past two years, Dr Philip has been working in Cameroon, Uganda, Tanzania and South Africa. Dr Philip has been linking dance with medicine for some time now and the sessions are a great success. The sessions aim to be a fun and social way to get patients moving and interacting, and generally engaging with their treatment in a more positive way.

Dr Philip was born in Bristol, UK and has been break dancing from the age of 13. Since then he has performed and set up lessons across the UK, Ireland, South Africa, Colombia and Mexico. The idea for this project came as a natural extension of work that Dr Philip has been involved in previously.

Dr Philip noticed that many of the patients often became weak due to inactivity. This had the risk of worsening the effects of the illness as well as the side effects of the medication. Amongst the issues he discovered was boredom, social isolation and depression.

At first Dr Philip thought it would be difficult to motivate the patients and staff to engage with this project but to his surprise, the idea was welcomed with open arms. “The response was extremely positive right from the start,” he said.

“The patients began asking when we could do the next session and even began going through the steps and exercising independently, which is something I hadn’t seen before. Although the staff are often busy, they see the effect that the sessions have had on patients,” Dr Philip added.

The physiotherapists and occupational therapists are now also involved and will be further developing the sessions for the specific needs of the patients, to continue to develop this holistic approach to care. For Dr Philip the importance of the sessions goes beyond improving fitness and eliminating boredom, it is about seeing patients as people and moving away from just providing medications.
It’s about looking at the individual and valuing them and their creativity, and expressing themselves through dance is a wonderful way to do this.

Dr Philip enjoyed watching patients’ health improve and relations between staff and the patients develop. For him these sessions have been one of the most rewarding aspects of his work.