The Irish Teams BeWater Journey So Far

We were delighted to be invited to take part in this innovative Erasmus project which was started by our colleagues in Madrid as we shared their passion about the benefits aquatic therapy. Although, we have to admit that the idea of interdisciplinary therapy sessions in the pool which included teaching staff was new to us so we were excited to learn from Madrid’s experiences, particularly as we felt it had great potential to help our service users.
Our involvement with the project really took off following our initial team meeting in Madrid in February 2020 where plans for the project were discussed. We also had the chance to see how our colleagues in Madrid put interdisciplinary aquatic therapy sessions in to practice which was very motivating. It was great to get to meet the other members of the team from Madrid and Madeira in person as well.
Unfortunately only a few weeks after we returned from Madrid the Covid 19 pandemic hit Ireland and our pool has been closed ever since so we have not been able to run any pool sessions. However, we are continuing to work on the project in the following ways:
• We completed virtual team training on aquatic therapy in preparation for when we are able to start carrying out pool sessions. The team in Madrid also prepared helpful training resources for us to learn from.

• Our service users participated in the competition to choose a logo for the project. Congratulations to Chloe and Finhas whose logo’s won the Irish competition and represented us at the international competition.

• However, our main involvement in the BeWater project has been to review and contribute to the development of guides for therapists and families who want to carry out interdisciplinary therapy sessions in the pool. The Irish team, especially Sarah, are also developing the BeWater website so we can share information about the project. We are becoming very used to doing this work through technologies such as Skype, Dropbox and Zoom as they have allowed us to communicate and continue sharing ideas with the team throughout the Covid 19 pandemic. Although we can’t wait to be able to collaborate in person again.

We are enjoying the opportunity to participate in this international sharing of ideas and practices and are look forward to continuing to contribute to the project. We are keeping our fingers crossed that Covid 19 restrictions will be eased very soon so that our pool can reopen. We can’t wait to take to the water and put some of the new ideas that we have learned by taking part in the project in to practice. To get more information and follow our progress check out our

Website: http://bewatererasmus.eu
Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/BeWaterEU
Twitter: https://twitter.com/BewaterErasmus