Water offers therapeutic benefits for people with disabilities
Kayla’s Children Centre is home to the only fully accessible hydrotherapy pool in York Region and it offers children and adults with disabilities the opportunity to enjoy a freedom that is unavailable in other areas of their lives.
Along with other benefactors, the Azrieli Foundation has contributed support to the construction of the hydrotherapy pool at KCC so that individuals with disabilities and medical needs can enjoy the therapeutic benefits of water therapy. As stated on the Centre’s website, “in the warm waters, individuals with mobility challenges can be independent, flexible, and free; they can build strength, muscle tone, endurance, and balance. The benefits are not only physical, but mental and emotional as well.”
Located in Vaughan, and open for just under two years, the hydrotherapy pool has become a centre piece of the community, attracting visitors from all over the Greater Toronto Area and even from across North America.
“There is no other pool like it,” says Leah Nussbaum, the director of development for KCC. “Other pools may offer a ramp to get into the pool, but their changeroom is not accessible. Our pool–and the whole facility–is fully accessible for adults and children with disabilities and this is due in part to the Azrieli Foundation.”
The Azrieli Foundation funded the changerooms connected to the hydrotherapy pool. This includes the installation of specialized lifts to allow people in wheelchairs to change and transfer to the pool and back again—a unique and essential feature of the facility, Nussbaum says.
“Imagine a 20-year-old in a wheelchair – they can’t go to a typical pool because of the question of where they will change,” Nussbaum says. “Those little benches are not safe or proper for them to use. The Azrieli Foundation has allowed us to make the changerooms truly accessible through the installation of lifts, change tables, water wheelchairs, ramps and other key features.”
Some of the physical benefits of the pool come in the form of relief from chronic pain and muscle spasms through the use of strong massage jets on various areas of the body. It is also an opportunity for pool users to enjoy being weightless while in the pool.
“People with disabilities are sitting in a wheelchair all day, with very little opportunity to move,” Nussbaum says. “We run and move and stretch, they can’t do that. The fact that we can get them out of their wheelchairs and move their bodies in ways that generally they can’t do on land, gives them so much relief.”
For people with cognitive disabilities, swimming offers immense benefits, Nussbaum adds.
“We have had tremendous success with people with Autism in the pool. Their brain works in different ways in the water and they are better able to follow instructions. The water motivates them, and they really like it,” she says.
The pool is a hit with parents as well. Nussbaum says, “They tell me, ‘I love seeing my kid so happy. They get so frustrated so easily, but in the pool, they are so calm.’”
Water offers physical, mental and emotional benefits, but it is also just plain fun.
“Ultimately we want to give people as many opportunities as possible to have fun while also improving their quality of life,” says Nussbaum.
To learn more about the hydrotherapy pool and Kayla’s Children Centre, click here.
