Aquatic Therapy – Halliwick (WSTH) Course: Description
Aquatic Therapy (WST) is an aqua therapy with Halliwick’s 10-step swimming method program. Halliwick is used as a pre-training for exercises that use the fluid mechanics properties of water. Halliwick’s ten-step program was developed by engineer James McMillan. He describes the first 6 steps as a pre-training to teach the patient the courage to fall and the ability to get up. These aspects are related to self-activity in water, which is the basis for exercises and activities that are specific to the patient’s problem, using the limitations of the aquatic environment. Some of these limitations are related to fluid mechanics: the use of flow conditions (turbulence), conduction waves and metacentric effects (the use of the change of gravity and buoyancy). The 10-Step Program is widespread in pediatrics.
WST began to develop in 1974 when McMillan was asked to set up an aquatic research group at the medical center of Bad Ragaz and the neighboring rehabilitation center in Switzerland (Kliniken Valens). He and the physiotherapists in the group developed exercises described in the German book “Wasserspezifische Therapie und Training” by Urs Gamper, one of the members of the research group. This book has been modernized into the current website www.waterspecifictherapy.org
The selection of WST (exercises and activities) is partly the result of a clinical process based on external evidence. Aquatic therapy is often chosen as the best intervention for patients with a specific musculoskeletal problem.
WST has clinically proven results in neurological patients when the intervention requires patients to be active and when the targets are at the functional level of the ICF (Scarano 2012, Tripp 2013, Fumari 2014).
Perhaps more importantly, the combined approach of WST and the original Halliwick group activities (WSTH) fits perfectly into the contemporary framework as a combination of neuroprotective exercises, continuous aerobic activities and environmental enrichment.
Outcomes:
After the course, participants will be able to:
- Relate WSTH to evidence-based practice and ICF
- Recognize balance problems in people with and without disabilities
- Effectively manage people in water
- Apply WST exercises and activities at all levels of the ICF for orthopedic, neurological, and rheumatic patient populations
- Apply WSTH as a neuroprotective exercise
- Use appropriate rules of motor learning and water feedback to design a treatment program. Explain the fluid mechanics principles of WSTH
- Design treatment programs for neurological, orthopedic, and rheumatic patients
- Use the WST-ICF assessment in water
Use the balance assessment on land