The pool at the Plant City Family YMCA isn’t just for swimming anymore — it’s also a great place for healing.
The Plant City Y teamed up with South Florida Baptist Hospital to bring the hospital’s aquatic rehabilitation services to the pool, allowing patients to use it for their own physical benefits. According to hospital rehabilitation manager David Davenport, a partnership with the Y made perfect sense because the two groups share “goals and strategies to serve our community.”
“The YMCA aquatic rehabilitation is just one of many tools in our toolbox that we, as therapists, use to rehabilitate our patients,” Davenport said. “The water environment is a very comfortable, relaxing and supportive medium in which we can rehabilitate our patients.”
For injuries, being in the water reduces the weight of the affected area and makes movement and exercise less painful. Those in occupational therapy programs can use the pool and its toys and features as a supplement to what they’re doing on dry land. Kids in speech training get more excited in the pool and can build lung strength by blowing bubbles in the water, among other things.
The programs run Thursday and Friday mornings and serve patients of all ages.