Aquacare

Aquacare is a GP referral service that we run in our pool. It is designed for anyone, of any age, who has injuries or long term conditions that health professionals believe would be helped through exercise. Many people report that exercise in warm water, which of course can provide both support and resistance, decreased recovery times and relieved pain.

The process is:

• A health professional (GP, physiotherapist, community link worker or children’s health visitor) will refer a patient to us for Aquacare
• We invite you for a short interview, to go through the referral and ask a few questions which will enable us to get to know you, build an exercise plan and keep you safe.
• The following week, when you come into the pool for the first time, there will be an exercise plan written and laminated for you to follow. There will also be an exercise by referral instructor who will walk you through the regime step by step.
• The client will come in each week and will work through the plan. The instructor will be on hand to answer any questions and make changes to the plan based upon progress.
• There is a review at 6 weeks, where the instructor will go back over the plan and make any alterations. The instructor will also write up a report on progress that will be sent to the referring health professional.
• Generally the course lasts 12 weeks, but referrals can go on a lot longer. We have several clients who have been with us for years and use the session as a form of therapy

We can also arrange free transport to and from the centre if needed.

Aquacare Case Study

This case study details the journey of person A (name redacted for anonymization) through our Aquacare referral system. It goes through the background of why he came to us, his recovery journey and next steps. The information was gathered via an interview and the words below are a paraphrasing of that conversation.

Person A is 69 and has had a hip replacement four years ago. At the end of July 2022, person A was in his house on his own. His wife was on the mainland. For seemingly no reason, his right leg gave way. In true male fashion, he shrugged it off and continued what he was doing until he realized he couldn’t raise his leg to get into bed. A bit more worried, he dialed 999 and ended up in hospital. As the hospital on Islay lacks the equipment to see what went wrong, he was sent to Royal Alexandra Hospital in Glasgow by helicopter. X-rays revealed his replacement hip joint had snapped and dislocated. What followed was an eight hour operation to remove the old one and fit a new one.

Person A is a driven individual who became frustrated at being unable to do the things he found easy a week before. He would also regularly walk up to 28km and is a coastguard. He was assigned a physiotherapist and referred to Aquacare. He has been attending Aquacare every week for the last four months. He was totally honest and stated he was not there for the social aspect. He purely wanted to recover and get his life back. He found the exercise programme was appropriate and he went home from his session “exhausted but in a good way”. Walking in the water is good because it is both resistive and supportive. He was also instructed to perform some horizontal exercises and a bit of swimming.

The first hip operation took three weeks to get him off a walking aid and three months to total recovery. This second operation recovery has been a lot more protracted, with the walking aid being unneeded after three months and full recovery still some way off yet. Doctors say there is now a double compliment of scar tissue and that will take a lot longer to fully heal but are impressed with his progress.

person A is a goal oriented guy, and finds it beneficial to set goals every single day. He has been doing three things throughout his recovery which he thinks have been beneficial. The most beneficial was walking his dog. This is because he could do it every day and slowly build up distance. The second most beneficial is Aquacare, as it is in warm water, available every week and the exercises are personalized to each client. This he stated as more beneficial than physiotherapy, though this may be due to the infrequency of appointments due to staffing shortages on the island. As an aside, he also said other, minor aches and pains from previous healed injuries are benefitting from Aquacare as well! He is now walking unaided and is back in service with the local coastguard.