Therapies Unite carries out its purposes through 4 programs which all focus on improving the physical and / or mental health and general well-being of individuals with disabilities. The programs combine working directly with individuals with disabilities through services provided by Therapies Unite as well as sign-posting to additional community services. Therapies Unite works with family members, health care professionals and carers working within the field of disabilities to educate, empower and improve existing local services. W e also focus on the wider communities, promoting and celebrating the achievements of individuals with disabilities, providing opportunities for work and recreational activities and improving integration into society. Therapies Unite strives to achieve positive changes that are long lasting and sustainable by the local community.
Summary of the main activities undertaken for the public benefit in relation to these objects (include within this section the statutory declaration that trustees have had regard to the guidance issued by the Charity Commission on public benefit)
The 4 programs which enable us to meet our purposes are outlined as follows
• Catrin’s Penguins: Catrin’s Penguins is an Aquatic Therapy service that incorporates a specialist form of therapy (Halliwick) to teach water safety and swimming to people with disabilities. We work directly with parents who deliver the therapy to their child under the guidance of trained volunteers. The therapy comprises a combination of Aquatic Therapy and Halliwick therapy which is delivered based on the needs of the individual. Therapy sessions are completed in large groups and involve different games and activities designed to teach children and adults how to control their body positions and breathing in the water. Training is offered to volunteers and new parents to enable them to feel confident in the water and maximise the effect of the therapy for their child. Service users who learn how to swim are then supported to join a local disability sport group and provided with further specialist swimming training.
• Catrin’s Centre: This service provides professional evaluation and provision, where possible, of specialist equipment for people with disabilities. The clinic is run once a week by two local physiotherapists and a wheelchair technician and on average 3 people are seen a week. The service focuses on providing equipment for children and adults with complex postural needs. It also caters for children, adults and their families who need advice, education, support and aids such as crutches, walking frames and occupational therapy equipment. In addition, families are able to
attend for sessions with the physiotherapist and receive a personal home exercise
program and advice for working with their child. All the equipment we use has been donated from the UK and is checked and repaired if needed. Once the family has finished with the equipment it can be returned, cleaned and serviced and then is ready to re-donate again. Appropriate Paper Technology (APT) can also be used at the clinic, which is a cost-effective way to produce various specialist seating and therapy items out of paper and cardboard. Items such as specialist seats, tables for wheelchairs, standing frames, sleep support systems, therapy equipment and splints can all be made from cardboard. These are all very important pieces of equipment that can be given to children from a young age that will greatly reduce the risk of them developing deformities and aid with physical, mental and sensory development. The majority of families cannot afford to buy these pieces of equipment and Therapies Unite are unable to fund them for every child. Using APT keeps costs to a minimum as specialist equipment is not required and materials are cheap/free and available locally.
Our clinic team can also visit local centres, schools and organisations that work with children and adults with disabilities to assist them with postural management. They work directly with staff and parents to provide education as well as run satellite clinics to repair wheelchairs and seating equipment as well as donate new equipment where needed.
• Courses and education sessions: we respond to the needs of the local community (both professionals and non-professionals/families) by running various courses and workshops. We offer various courses for free (with and without formal qualifications) relating to relevant topics which have been requested locally as well as offering courses in areas that we feel may be of benefit to the local community. We offer support after the course has finished to assist with implementation of learning and new skills. We also fund external specialist courses for our team, investing in their growth and development.
• Volunteering Program: We are able to offer qualified healthcare professionals a volunteer program that is tailored to their individual skills. Volunteers select which of our projects they would like to work depending on their experience and skill level as well as being able to work in additional external community projects. In addition to our Volunteer Program we also have a 5-week credit bearing physiotherapy placement with Keele University and an UK based Internship Program run in conjunction with Santander and Keele University.
We have continued to re-open and develop our programs since the Covid-19 Pandemic and things have settled to a new ‘normal’ in Mexico. The safety of our team and vulnerable service users and their families continues to be paramount. Wherever possible we are making our therapy clinics and sessions Covid safe. It has been wonderful to see our familiar service users return as well as help many new individuals.
Covid-19 has had a tremendous impact on the disabled community in Puerto Vallarta and they need our support now more than ever. Our team in Mexico has focused on reviewing the families that were most affected by the pandemic and made them a priority for review and attendance at our therapy sessions.
Our director, Laura, was able to return to Mexico for a 4 week trip in March 2022, the first time she has returned since 2019. This was a very productive trip for her and the team and her time was spent evaluating the services, spending 1-1 time with the team, implementing formal and informal training and setting up links with local supporters. As a result we are now planning and developing our programs moving into 2023.
Catrins Penguins
The sessions were run weekly by our two physiotherapists and a qualified Hallwicik Instructor and split into two groups, one for children and one for adults. On average we had up to attendees per group per week.
We continued to train the parents and carers who attended the session in the various techniques and provide ideas for activities and exercises they can deliver with their child in the water.
We had some incredible news in October, Sergio our original swimmer and one of our first penguins got into to the PARANACIONALES CONADE CANCUN 2021, and won 3 gold and 2 silver medals in his races. This was after he had Covid and had not had the chance to train properly. We are super proud to be part of his journey and really excited to see where he is going to go next.
Catrins Centre
In September we moved into a new clinic with enough space for the equipment, assessment area and workshop. The clinic opens on a Tuesday and is run by three members of the local team; two physio and a technician. On average 3 people are seen a week.
Children and adults who attended their reviews were assessed by our Senior Physiotherapist & given advice & specially adapted equipment where necessary/possible.
In the UK our director, Laura, continued to develop plans for our postural service and ideas for the development of a postural pathway. She attended training herself as well as had virtual meetings with local providers/manufacturers of specialist equipment in regards to this. She also had meetings with companies and charities in the UK and Mexico looking for support in developing this project further.
We continued to work with local organisations in Puerto Vallarta specialising in treating disabled children & adults in Puerto Vallarta, including Pasitos de Luz & The Adaptive Sports Team.
Courses and education sessions
Training is one of the key principles we use to enable long term changes. We focus on providing education to our service users, their families, health care professionals, physiotherapy students and the general public. We have not only invested in virtual learning for our therapy team, but we have also held a number of face to face courses. Laura, our director, was able to deliver some training to the Physiotherapy staff and students (20) at Pasitos de Luz, which is one of the major centres in PV providing day care, education and rehabilitation for children with disabilities. Staff there have had no formal training in hydrotherapy so she covered the basic principles of working in the water and some different treatment techniques. We had really positive feedback with staff saying they felt more confident to work in the water and had more ideas to make individualised treatment plans for the children.
In addition to the hydrotherapy training, Laura also delivered a Posture Care training to staff at Pasitos de Luz (15) including physiotherapists and support workers. This was such an important session as many of the children at Pasitos have complex postures and require very specific equipment and positioning guidance to stop secondary complications from occurring. It was great to work with both the therapy team and the support workers as posture care should be implemented over the course of a day.
The next step is to roll this training out wider, to the parents and also to physiotherapy students from the local university. We are looking at developing a Posture Care course that can be delivered virtually (from the UK) or face to face (via our Mexican Team) to help inform as many people as possible about the importance of posture care.
Laura also spent time with our team reviewing posture care, elements of assessment, typical presentations and solutions for seating. We also reviewed sleep systems, their clinical use and implementation.
Volunteering Program
Thankfully, we were able to re-start our volunteer program again and had two volunteers assisting Laura in Mexico in March, Ellen and Elsie. Ellen is an ex-Keele Physiotherapy student who was due to come on placement in March 2020, this was of course canceled because of the pandemic. Elsie is a qualified physiotherapist who is currently traveling around Central and South America and decided she would like to work for Therapies Unite. It was great to finally restart our volunteer program and we spent a busy and productive 4 weeks together.
Unfortunately our student placement program was suspended again however is going ahead for 2023 with 5 students from Keele spending 5 weeks in Mexico,
Laura completed a zoom session with Keele University to promote the placement to prospective students for 2023 and interviews were held, with 5 successful candidates planned to come out in April 2023.
We completed an Internship with Santander and Keele University 6 students over the course of 2021-22. The internship was focused around various topic areas including the impact of Covid-19 on the disabled community in Mexico and some really great
pieces of work and resources were developed. Some of the students will be taking these to Mexico to implement during their placements in 2023.
Events
Numerous fundraising events took place throughout the year organised by our trustees and supporters. These included a walk of the Costal Path in Wales (Catrin Wynn Davies completed this impressive feat), Salsa fitness fundraisers, runs and walks.
Our team in Mexico took part in the International Day of People with Disabilities in December. This involved them being part of a parade and many of the adults and children we work with attended. Laura also took part in a 5K race whilst in Mexico in March raising money and awareness for a charity that supports children with disabilities in Mexico.
Laura Brown de Rodriguez also completed various visits to Rotary Clubs in the UK to update them on the projects in Mexico and ask for more support.
Therapies Unite Income & Expenditure 01/04/21 to 31/03/22
| INCOME | April | May | June | July | August | September | October | November | December | January | February | March | Total Income |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| JustGiving | £402.98 | £948.65 | £1,696.84 | £889.82 | £2,442.62 | £349.96 | £29.03 | £9.61 | 693.47 | £312.70 | £441.93 | £244.25 | £8,461.86 |
| Eco Racing fundraiser | £18.79 | £18.79 | |||||||||||
| Norina Pauling | £126.00 | 20 | 87 | 20 | 20 | 20 | 40 | 20 | 20 | £373.00 | |||
| Easy Fundraising | 23.96 | 33.59 | £27.59 | £32.57 | £117.71 | ||||||||
| Amazon Smile | £30.77 | 7.23 | 10.8 | 14.96 | £63.76 | ||||||||
| PaypPal Giving Fund | 11 | £11.00 | |||||||||||
| Global Giving | 436.75 | £436.75 | |||||||||||
| Rotary Club donations | 1500 | £1,500.00 | |||||||||||
| Ali Aries donation | 6 | 3 | 6 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 6 | 3 | 3 | £36.00 | |||
| David Marklew donation | 50 | £20.00 | £70.00 | ||||||||||
| Carole Holdcroft donation | 50 | £50.00 | |||||||||||
| Total income | £432.77 | £1,135.38 | £1,719.84 | £889.82 | £2,626.44 | £809.71 | £52.03 | £60.20 | £724.27 | £358.70 | £2,012.46 | £317.25 | £11,088.87 |
| EXPENDITURE | |||||||||||||
| April | May | June | July | August | September | October | November | December | January | February | March | Total Expenditure | |
| Staf Wages & expenses | £906.54 | £127.09 | £889.82 | £305.10 | £409.59 | £175.05 | £313.18 | £299.79 | £471.42 | £494.44 | £275.93 | £573.41 | £5,241.36 |
| Justgiving fee | £18.00 | £18.00 | £18.00 | £18.00 | £18.00 | £18.00 | £18.00 | £18.00 | £18.00 | £18.00 | £18.00 | £18.00 | £216.00 |
| Operating Licence Fee | £40.00 | £20.00 | £60.00 | ||||||||||
| Foeign transfer costs | £15.00 | £15.00 | 15 | 15 | £15.00 | £15.00 | £15.00 | 15 | £15.00 | £15.00 | £15.00 | £15.00 | £180.00 |
| Public Liability Insurance | £436.01 | £436.01 | |||||||||||
| Universal Display banner | £42.08 | £42.08 | |||||||||||
| Premises Rental Mexico | £309.59 | 305.37 | 303.77 | 308.88 | 307.11 | £309.77 | 304.4 | 388.46 | 302.92 | 307.83 | 304.98 | 306.27 | £3,759.35 |
| Website Hosting | 17.99 | £17.99 | |||||||||||
| Urban Prints - Pop up display | 195 | £195.00 | |||||||||||
| Urban Prints - Safety material | 20 | £20.00 | |||||||||||
| Director Flights & accomodation | 2067 | £2,067.00 | |||||||||||
| Total expenditure | £1,289.13 | £465.46 | £1,226.59 | £646.98 | £1,227.79 | £517.82 | £650.58 | £721.25 | £807.34 | £853.26 | £613.91 | £3,214.68 | £12,234.79 |
| Monthly Income - Expenditure | -£856.36 | £669.92 | £493.25 | £242.84 | £1,398.65 | £291.89 | -£598.55 | -£661.05 | -£83.07 | -£494.56 | £1,398.55 | -£2,897.43 | -£1,145.92 |