That's a Wrap 2020

Well, what an extraordinary year 2020 has been! As we wind up services for 2020, we can reflect on the year that has been and while there have been some very tough challenges there has also been much reward.

I would personally like to thank each and every one of you who have attended a session, participated in our catch-up calls, showed us some love on social media by liking and sharing our posts, sent us an email to say hi, referred a friend to the service or someone you support, purchased a piece of merchandise, shared your story or supported someone to attend, your show of support has inspired us to keep going and remain Determined2.

To our staff, your dedication to our customers, each other and the business has been amazing, you have risen to the challenge and excelled. I know each of you feel the same privilege and honour that I do in providing services to the people who access our services.

2020 has gifted us plenty of opportunities and we are Determined2 make the most of those for the greater good of our ever-growing D2 community, here are some highlights from the year.

• During the height of lockdown and with no pool to deliver services, we provided cost free catch-up calls with around 80% of our participants, the feedback was awesome and proved to not only be of benefit to our participants but also our staff. In total, more than 300 catch up calls were completed on a variety of platforms including, zoom, telehealth and over the phone.

• We remained united and committed, with the assistance of the Federal Government’s Job Keeper Scheme, we were able to continue to support our staff and those who chose to stay worked endlessly during the entire closure period. Some worked on the catch-up calls and other worked on the continued evolution of Immersion Therapy and Goals to Recovery. This work ensured we were making the absolute most of the opportunities and being best prepared to resume when the time came, a real testament to the Determined2 staff and their level of commitment.
• Resuming services, in July we were able to resume services all be it in a limited capacity and with all the new considerations that were needed to provide services safely within a COVID new normal. The way that everyone worked together to make this happen was incredible and truly showed the value of including your customers and stakeholders in the design of services. Since then and as restrictions have eased, we have seen a steady increase of our capacity and currently are close to pre COVID limits. This would not have been possible without your patience and support as we slowly and safely resumed services so thank you.

• Increasing capacity, we have long known the need to increase our capacity and ability to provide services to our growing participant base and the past year has given us the opportunity to invest in just that. In September we listed an expression of interest amongst the Universities and public calling for applications to become our newest Immersion Therapy Specialist, over the next 2 months we interviewed the candidates and held a selection process. From that we selected three soon to be Exercise Physiologists, all in their final year of studies with the University of South Australia. Hank, Mikhaela and James all began their official Immersion Therapy Specialist training on the 23rd of November, we expect they will be delivering services early next year.

We hope you are as excited as we are in including these new members to our team, not only will they provide the support to our increased demand on services but will also have the extra insight to best support and assist our participants in and out of the water so if you are keen to see what they can do, just ask!

• Research, Research, Research, in 2016 Determined2 was awarded a grant from the Lifetime Support Aurthority to fund a small-scale pilot to explore the benefits of Immersion Therapy. Determined2 engaged the support of Dr Adrian Winsor, a leading Rehabilitation Physician and qualified Underwater Doctor with SA Health to assist us. Dr Adrian reached out to the University of South Australia School of Allied Health and Human Performance to see if they could support him in the grand undertaking of researching a world first underwater therapeutic service.

Coincidentally, Dr Kade Davidson, a senior lecturer of Exercise Physiology (EP) at the Uni proposed the opportunity and was quickly taken up by a newly graduated EP Ms Karlee Naumann, who was looking to complete her degree in research and had a love for the underwater world as a recreational SCUBA diver. Well, after three years of work Karlee this year has published her thesis, appropriately named, The Physical and Psychological Experience of Immersion Therapy for People Living with a Disability.

Along with this amazing work Karlee was also able to obtain her conferral of her research degree. This forms a great base for future research which is already under way with at least two other publications due next year and led to Determined2 becoming an industry partner to the school of Allied Health and Human Performance thanks to a Future Industries Accelerator grant from the Government of South Australia administered by the University of South Australia.

We are really excited about these projects and opportunities including opening the door for us to employ qualified health professionals to deliver our multiple award winning, world first service of Immersion Therapy which most importantly has been built and designed from the ground up by people with lived experience.

I am also very proud that this work has not only benefited Determined2 and those accessing our services, but we have had such a massive influence amongst the training and education of new health professionals. This ensures we are living our values and influencing the new generations to provide better person-centered, equity-based services across the broad spectrum of health.

In closing, I would like to wish everyone a very safe and happy holiday season and I am looking forward to seeing you all back underwater again when we resume services on Monday the 4th of January, rested and ready to go.

We will be monitoring our emails over this time so if it cannot wait until the 4th please do not hesitate to send us an email on [email protected]

As for the phone, this will be less monitored so the preference would be email otherwise leave a message and we will endeavour to return your call in the new year.

Wishing you a very Merry Christmas

Pete