Good Country Physiotherapy

Tell us a bit about you and your background…

Good Country Physiotherapy is a rural Physiotherapy practice in the beautiful region of South Australia called the Limestone Coast. We have a team of 10 physiotherapists and 1 allied health assistant servicing the towns of Bordertown, Keith, Naracoorte and Kingston SE. For over 10 years, from October to April our Bordertown team has run a hydrotherapy service from a heated pool at the Highway Church in Bordertown.

We run classes and individual sessions for members of the community across all age groups and abilities. Our team who work in the pool, as well as being fantastic physiotherapists and active members of their communities also have a passion for working with children of all abilities and backgrounds. We often learn as much from our younger clients as they do from us. 

Why did you choose to become Autism Swim Approved and what are the greatest benefits you’ve found since doing so?

As a business we were looking for resources to improve our hydrotherapy service and ways to support our team’s training when we came across Autism Swim. Over the years the number of children accessing our services with a diagnosis of autism has gradually increased. We identified that individuals with autism face unique challenges and as a team we would all be better at supporting them in the pool if we as a team had more support. 

The training provided by Autism Swim has supported our staff in providing more individually tailored sessions to our clients. We found the modules on communication strategies and setting goals especially helpful.

The resources provided, images and social story templates have added extra structure and direction to the sessions, so we have been able to work more specifically on planning and achieving patient’s goals in the pool.

What sort of feedback have you received since putting the skills you learned into practice?

Having just signed up our third staff member to Autism Swim and having just become a recognised Autism Swim centre we look forward to receiving feedback from our clients in the coming term. 

What advice can you give to other aquatic providers looking to become more inclusive?

Forming relationships and progress in the pool can take time. Try to not to focus solely on the outcome but work on making each session as enjoyable as possible. 

Autism swim training and resources has been of great benefit to our team. The resources have allowed us to work closer with patients in identifying goals and selecting strategies to help our clients both enjoy and benefit from the sessions.

Emphasising that we are all different the training has helped us devise strategies on how best to work with clients with different needs.