Patients see great results from rehabilitative therapy in the pool
For some patients, the pool reminds them of their childhood, Barb said with a smile. She’s been working at Family Health West for 14 years as a physical therapist assistant.
Barb Allyn and Trista Wyckoff make up the aquatic therapy program through the FHW Hospital Rehabilitation Outpatient Clinic. FHW doesn’t have a swimming pool, so FHW partners with the City of Fruita to utilize the pool inside the Fruita Community Center. Still, Trista says, aquatic therapy is a great alternative to traditional therapy, and people tend to like it. (Even if at first they are hesitant about it.)
Trista has supported and healed patients with aquatic therapy for almost a decade. She was introduced to it while attending school in Denver through a mentorship program she was in. She had to do what her assigned mentor therapist was doing at the time, and the mentor was treating neurologically impacted patients with aquatic therapies. Trista found she really enjoyed seeing the progress of the patient’s mobility and confidence that occurred through treatment happening in the pool. She joined the FHW rehabilitative team in October 2015.
When she left Maine for Colorado, “it was 40 degrees below zero in January,” Barb said, and then she laughed. “It was 40 degrees (above zero) when I got to Colorado.”
For Barb, Colorado had an internship through Colorado Mesa University, bringing her west for the first time. She never moved back east again, only returning to visit. She received additional education from San Juan College in New Mexico, doing that program online. Barb played sports all her life and went the route of athletic training and massage therapy before settling into her physical therapy assistant position.
Trista worked full-time at FHW while doing a bridge program at a school in Ohio, graduating with her doctorate in physical therapy.
The windy education road for Barb and Trista wasn’t easy or fast, but to their patients, it was all worth it!
When asked how patients get to do aquatic therapy, they both said, a few different ways.
Patients may come to the FHW Hospital Rehabilitation Clinic for traditional treatment and find their range of motion limited due to their ailment or experience balance issues, for example. The therapist may suggest aquatic therapy, which might be the same movements but submersed in the pool. The pool water limits the effects of gravity’s pull on the body, enhancing a patient’s ability to participate in a regular exercise routine they otherwise might not be able to do. That’s when healing begins. Also, a physician may refer patients to the aquatic therapy program, recognizing the many benefits.
Trista works with patients in the pool once a week, and Barb works with patients in the pool twice a week. Their patient caseload is growing, especially with patients who have had a stroke, osteoarthritis, or experience chronic pain. Walking in the water can be pain-free for some patients, Trista said. That allows them to complete their therapy regimen, for example, and gain muscle strength, improve balance, increase healing, and more.
Aquatic therapy patients are always seen on a one-to-one ratio, patients do not have to know how to swim, and appointments last about 45 minutes. All ages of adults are seen, but pediatric patients are seen only by pediatric rehabilitative therapists. (That’s another profile for another day!)
“I’ve had patients be very fearful of water,” Barb said. “At the end (of their appointments), they will get in the water alone.”
We surprise a lot of patients who initially think we are swimming laps in the pool, but that isn’t at all what we do, Trista said with a smile.
What these ladies do alongside patients is heal them. For more information about the FHW Aquatic Rehab Therapy program or FHW Rehabilitative Medicine, visit https://fhw.org/services/rehab/ or call (970) 858-2147.
