Therapies Unite Income & Expenditure 01/04/22 to 31/03/23
| INCOME | April | May | June | July | August | September | October | November | December | January | February | March | Total Income |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| JustGiving | £77.68 | £86.66 | £58.26 | £58.26 | £58.26 | £58.26 | £178.47 | £376.68 | £352.36 | £155.96 | £604.37 | £2,065.22 | |
| DONR | £945.77 | £34.20 | £34.20 | £1.90 | £1,016.07 | ||||||||
| Corporate Donations | £3,500.00 | £3,500.00 | |||||||||||
| Easy Fundraising | £28 | £29.95 | £57.95 | ||||||||||
| Amazon Smile/Europe Core | £8.63 | £6.92 | £6.90 | £13.75 | £36.20 | ||||||||
| Global Giving | £843.13 | ||||||||||||
| Rotary Club donations | £1,000 | 50 | £1,050.00 | ||||||||||
| Individual Donors | £58 | £3 | £3 | £3 | £6 | £3 | £3 | £3 | £82.00 | ||||
| Total income | £0.00 | £144.31 | £1,932.79 | £61.26 | £96.18 | £108.26 | £64.26 | £218.32 | £1,322.45 | £403.31 | £3,693.16 | £606.27 | £7,807.44 |
| EXPENDITURE | |||||||||||||
| April | May | June | July | August | September | October | November | December | January | February | March | Total Expenditure | |
| Clinical Project costs | £552.87 | £404.47 | £476.37 | £398.21 | £510.68 | £485.69 | £720.37 | £370.38 | £3,919.04 | ||||
| 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 |
| Gambling Licence (Raffle) | £40.00 | £20.00 | £60.00 | ||||||||||
| Foeign transfer costs | £15.00 | £15.00 | £36.40 | £38.83 | £15.00 | £15.00 | £36.07 | £171.30 | |||||
| Fiverr - Translation fees | £37.20 | £41.78 | £78.98 | ||||||||||
| Public Liability Insurance | £570.93 | £570.93 | |||||||||||
| Premises Rental Mexico | £325.07 | £339.65 | £346.42 | £346.16 | £353.89 | £370.13 | £235.77 | £225.96 | £245.28 | £2,788.33 | |||
| Room Hire - Salsa evening | £100 | £100.00 | |||||||||||
| Marketing | £59.94 | £59.94 | |||||||||||
| Total expenditure | £358.07 | £962.72 | £805.29 | £879.36 | £1,356.03 | £913.81 | £877.25 | £58.00 | £18.00 | £18.00 | £1,064.33 | £653.66 | £7,964.52 |
| Monthly Income - Expenditure | -£358.07 | -£818.41 | £1,127.50 | -£818.10 | -£1,259.85 | -£805.55 | -£812.99 | £160.32 | £1,304.45 | £385.31 | £2,628.83 | -£47.39 | -£157.08 |
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 focuses on posture management and 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 physiotherapy advice, education, support and equipment such as walking frames, wheelchairs and standing aids. At present, 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.
Our clinic team 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 the option to provide a credit-bearing physiotherapy placement with Keele University.
Catrins Penguins
The sessions were run weekly by our two physiotherapists and a qualified Hallwicik Instructor as well as two new volunteers. We ran two groups, one for children and one for adults and on average we had up to 15 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.
It was incredible to see and hear about some of our Catrin’s Penguins graduates again, training with the Deporte Adaptado, just showing how much can be achieved if an individual has access to water therapy. There are three swimmers who are now training regularly and competing nationally with the team, all of whom learnt to swim with Therapies Unite. Sergio continues to be successful, competing at the World Series in Mexico narrowly missing out on a place in the paralympic squad but taking home 3 silver and 1 gold in the national in Cancun in November.
Catrins Centre
It has long been our wish and a key charity aim to provide all children and adults who need it with a high-quality specialised postural assessment and equipment required to manage their 24 hour posture care needs. We are in the process of working towards this aim and have some exciting plans for 2024. At Catrin’s Clinic, we aim to provide posture evaluations with our physiotherapists and where possible, specialist posture equipment (such as wheelchairs, seating, walking frames, orthotics) as well as the provision of education/home exercise programs. We also offer a repair/adaptation service to existing equipment. Our team works out of the clinic once a week, but they also complete home visits as well as posture reviews in day services and residential placements.
We moved to a new clinic location in the more disadvantaged suburb of Pitillal, bringing our services closer to the homes of families who are most in need of our support. Our staff and volunteers worked hard to improve both the clinical and storage areas as well as sorting, repairing and cataloguing our stock of donated equipment. The clinical area has been redecorated in Therapies Unite blue and our volunteers are currently setting up a workshop area for our skilled wheelchair technician, Oscar, to work more easily. This will include purchasing a stock of commonly used parts so we can complete wheelchair and equipment repairs on the day of appointment, saving on time and freeing up appointments for others in need.
This year we were fortunate to have Ella, a volunteer Trainee Clinical Scientist specialising in Rehabilitation Engineering, working alongside our team in Mexico. The team spent much of their time reviewing children and adults in their existing seating, making adjustments and repairs as well as providing postural advice. A lot of time was also spent at Pasitos de Luz, adjusting chairs and sorting through their donated TU stock to make sure the equipment can be used efficiently. One wheelchair that was donated stands out this trip. This was provided to a special 5 year old girl who hadn't been out of the house apart from in her parent's arms. She left our clinic wheeling out in her own chair, the look of excitement from her and her parents is something very special that our volunteers will not easily forget.
One of our aims for 2024 is to source more products locally. Importing used equipment is an expensive and often slow and difficult process. As Mexico moves forward, more and more items are becoming available in-country and so we are looking to support local and national businesses, reduce our impact on the environment and reduce costs by sourcing locally as much as possible. As part of this, we will be purchasing an industrial sewing machine for our therapist Laura who has been doing some fantastic work over the past few years making items such as wheelchair harnesses and seat cushions as well as being able to create new wheelchair backs. This will allow our team to refurbish existing wheelchairs and reduce the need for new stock. In addition to equipment, education in posture management is a key development need for Mexican healthcare professionals and we have plans to continue to develop the knowledge and expertise of our own local staff as well as teaching as many local professionals and healthcare students as we can.
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 and conferences 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. Laura also delivered a virtual presentation about the Posture Care Project as part of the SPOTLights on Charities series.
We continued to work with local organisations in Puerto Vallarta specialising in treating disabled children & adults in Puerto Vallarta, including Pasitos de Luz, CAM21, The Asilo & 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.
This year Laura was able to provide some Aquatic Therapy training for the Keele students as well as run a session for a group of 16 physiotherapy students from a local University. They joined us for a two hour practical session covering the basics which was really successful. We also ran some sessions in the pool at Pasitos de Luz. Aquatic Rehabilitation is such a good therapy for individuals of all ages with any disability.
Laura also delivered Posture Care training to our volunteers and PV 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
In April, it was great to have the first post-covid cohort of Keele University students visit Mexico with members of the Trustee team. During their 5 week final year placement, the 5 students had opportunities to work with our hydrotherapy groups and in Catrin's Clinic, as well as with athletes and swimmers with disabilities, special needs schools and elderly rehabilitation. In addition to their clinic time, they received training in both theory and practical aspects of physiotherapy. They also had other superb opportunities, such as supporting the Therapies Unite Director Laura teaching aquatic therapy techniques to Physiotherapy Students at the University of Guadalajara and joining the World Access Project who visited PV to distribute Wheelchair and Mobility Equipment during their stay. It was an excellent 5 weeks for all involved - TU Staff, Volunteers & Trustees, students, service users and their family and friends. This placement would not have been possible without the support of the Pickles Family and the Keele University School of Allied Health Professions
Isobella and Sophie, who are Keele physiotherapy graduates, joined us for a two week placement in June. Their original placement was one affected by the pandemic back in 2022. Both had an incredible time working at the various projects and are keen to join us again in Mexico. In addition we had Ella who joined us for 4 weeks, sharing her passion for posture care and wheelchair provision. Her skills were very much appreciated and put to great use at Catrin’s Clinic in Puerto Vallarta.
Our director, Laura, in addition to all of the Therapies Unite Trustees (Eric, Gaynor, Vicki and Chloe) were also able to return to Mexico last year between April and June. Vicki and Gaynor spent 5 weeks as clinical educators for the Keele University students and Chloe, was able to induct and support our volunteers. Aside from supporting our students and volunteers, it was a very productive trip for the Trustee team. Time was spent evaluating the services, how they are being delivered and what we can do to improve them and how to increase our outreach and impact. The input from our Trustees has really helped us to see our charity vision more clearly and will allow us to drive our projects forward over the coming year. We have lots of exciting plans moving forwards into 2024.
Events
Numerous fundraising events took place throughout the year organized by our trustees and
supporters. These included a wine tasting night, Salsa Dancing fundraisers, runs and walks.
Our team in Mexico hosted a ‘Posada’ to celebrate all of our service users in December and we also took part in the parade and activities for Day of the Disabled and Day of the Child in Puerto Vallarta. We also supported World Access Project at their clinics and sports camps in April.
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.