Hydrotherapy and dysphagia

[dinasaurusrex]

I work with adults with learning disabilities and we are currently having a big MDT debate on whether patients with dysphagia problems can participate in hydro or not. Are they at an increased risk of aspiration? Does anyone know of any guidelines or information on this? Does anyone use hydro with this client group? Please help!

[Ethel]

Hi!!

I spent 15 months working with severely disabled adults. I used to take a good number of them down into a pool for hydro/physio twice a week. Since the group was predominantly made up of people suffering from cerebral palsy, most of them DID have probelmes with aspiration.

I never found any contraindication to the pool, unless incontinence obviously. I used to make sure to keep their head well above the water. In the case of hydrotherapy, where floats are allowed, I used to support their head on a float, or ask another person to support from the scapulae.

With those who could understand better & obey commands, I used to use a mixture of hydrotherapy & Halliwick method ... so that I could practice water confidence.

I personally never had any problems with aspirations from the pool. I agree that you have to be very careful with dysphagic people, however, that does not mean that they should not benefit from hydrotherapy or even recreational swimming under supervision.

Let me know what your MDT discussions conclude!

Ethel
Malta