New center will serve Barrow patients and the community
Clinicians at Barrow attempt to incorporate aquatic-based interventions into treatment plans for patients of all ages with a variety of diagnoses: stroke, brain injury, spinal cord injury, back pain syndromes, injuries requiring restricted lower extremity weight bearing, and other musculoskeletal dysfunction.
While Barrow has a pool, it does not work well for aquatic therapy due to the following factors:
- The location of the current pool on 7th Avenue is not close to any of the rehabilitation treatment areas.
- The design of the pool area is not conducive to sessions during the summer months because it is not enclosed, leaving patients exposed to the elements.
- Another drawback to the existing pool is that it was not designed for therapeutic use, and so it does not accommodate people with special needs as it should.
The new Ashlyn Dyer Aquatic Center for rehabilitation services
The new aquatic therapy center at Barrow will be tailored to fit the needs of the patients using it. Some of the planned features for the center include:
- Perhaps most importantly, an enclosed and climate-controlled facility for use year round.
- Two lifts so more patients can get in and out of the pool at the same time.
- Stairs customized to suit individuals with special needs. The current pool was once a hotel pool and has short, steep stairs that are difficult to use.
- A pool cleaning system that is safer for patients. Chlorine-based systems can be dangerous to special-needs patients because toxic fumes often collect near the water’s surface, resulting in individuals breathing them in during therapy.
- Locker rooms to allow patients and families to change on site.
Serving the community
The Ashlyn Dyer Aquatic Center would serve more than the inpatients and outpatients needing neurological rehabilitation at Barrow. The new proposed location on the south side of Merrell Street could conveniently serve several other users, including Children’s Rehabilitative Services, Parkinson’s patients, orthopedics patients, the Arthritis Foundation, and Ryan’s House, a palliative and hospice care facility for children.
Several pools in the Valley have closed in recent years, leaving fewer options for patients in need of these services. Barrow could open its pool to community partners. Individuals needing maintenance care also could visit the pool for a small fee.
These potential uses would make the pool a facility that would benefit a whole community of people in need of aquatic rehabilitation.
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