Provide a Posture Care Clinic for Mexican Children

It has been a busy spring at Therapies Unite as we rebuild our volunteer programme and develop our services again following the Covid-19 Pandemic. Since mid-April we have had a steady stream of volunteers from the UK arriving in Puerto Vallarta to support our projects, including our Director and entire Trustee board, alongside 5 student physiotherapists from Keele University and 3 skilled therapy and wheelchair volunteers. Having had our Trustee board out in Mexico has really helped us to see our charity vision more clearly and will allow us to drive our postural management project forwards over the coming months.

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, provide the equipment required for this and then continue to review each person on a yearly basis, or earlier if required. As children grow, their postural care needs change and equipment must be altered or replaced. During my 5 weeks in Puerto Vallarta in April and May, I had the opportunity to be a part of this, reviewing a number of children who we have known and supported as a charity since they were small and who are now teenagers. Witnessing these children being reassessed and provided with new equipment that better suits their needs has reinforced for me how essential our service is, being the only specialised seating supplier in the town. As a country, Mexico has a very limited supply of specialist seating, with most of the equipment being donated from overseas and distributed by charities. Postural management is a key educational development need for Mexican healthcare professionals and our clinic has plans to continue to develop our own local staff as well as teaching as many local professionals and healthcare students as we can. Your donations are vital in achieving this.

In recent months we have 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 are working 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.

One of our aims for 2023 is to source more products locally, to become less reliant on importing equipment from the UK. 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 a new, much more 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. The new sewing machine will be able to sew through thick wheelchair fabric which we are looking to source from Mexico City. This will allow our team to refurbish existing wheelchairs and reduce the need for new stock.

There are exciting times ahead for Therapies Unite and our Postural Management project and we look forward to updating you again in the coming months. I’d like to sign off this report with a great big THANK YOU to all of our supporters and donors without whom this project would not be possible. During my 5 weeks there I saw so many happy faces from our service users and their families as well as endless enthusiasm from our local team. With your ongoing donations we can continue to develop a high quality postural management service for the community of Puerto Vallarta, one that we are extremely proud of and that leads the way in developing disability services in Mexico.

Its been a busy few months since our last update, so many exciting things have happened and many more on the horizon.

As you can see in the reports from last year, Laura and a small team did manage to travel to Puerto Vallarta, following the lifting of the world-wide Covid-19 restrictions.  They achieved so much and it feels like we are building the momentum back up. 

Last summer, in an event in PV celebrating the Achievements of Women, organised by  Maria Rodolfa Gomez, Laura , our Director, won the Inspiring Lives Innovator of the Year Award.  Sad that she was unable to collect the award herself, she was honoured that another inspiring woman and friend, Ericka from the Deporte Adaptado Puerto Vallarta collected the award on her behalf, along with our wonderful water therapist and original TU member Mariano.  All at TU are so proud of Laura, with her dedication and achievements over the years, I'm sure all of you that follow Therapies Unite with agree this was a very well-deserved recognition. 

We are now in our 10th year that Therapies Unite have worked with Keele University to provide opportunities for clinical practice /  placements to their Physiotherapy Students.  Covid restrictions meant it has been 3 years since we were able to offer this within the University curriculum. Laura and her team visited Keele University in November last year to talk to prospective students about the placement as well as review the work that has been completed by one of our interns, Leigh, who has produced a wonderful noticeboard about the Catrin Pickles Scholarship Placement.  There is great excitement that this year, in April, a Therapies Unite team including 5 Physiotherapy Students from Keele University, will arrive in PV. These exceptional young people have been working hard to raise money to support their clinical placements with events such as Salsa Dancing and Cake / Bake Sales (after partaking in the cakes on offer, the salsa dancing was a must to work off some of those scrumptious calories!!) the countdown is on...  

Recognising what a wonderful experience the clinical placement with TU is for Therapy Students, this year we are looking to expand beyond the Physiotherapy profession, with interest from  a Clinical Science Student to complete her elective placement with the TU team.  It will be great to have other trainee Healthcare Clinicians, enriching knowledge and skills for all involved. 

As everyone seeks opportunities to save a little money as cost of living soars, at Therapies Unite, we are hugely grateful to all those who have been and are still supporting the work we do.  Your donations, the salsa events, raffles and applying for charity grants, all make it possible to continue. We know the difference that the hydrotherapy, seating assessments and equipment provision makes to each individual and their wider family.

From all at Therapies Unite, In Mexico and United Kingdom, we wish you all Health and Happiness for 2023. 

Links:

• Charity Website