About Deptherapy & Deptherapy Education
Deptherapy is an English based charity.
Deptherapy Education is a scuba diving agency that delivers adaptive teaching for the disabled
Deptherapy & Deptherapy Education Description
The page has two distinct elements:
DEPTHERAPY
The first is Deptherapy, a charity that seeks to rehabilitate injured troops, who have suffered life changing injuries, through the medium of scuba diving. Some are skeptical about the benefits of scuba diving for those suffering serious mental and physical challenges. Research by Johns Hopkins University in the USA proves differently; http://www. hopkinsmedicine.org/news /media /releases /scuba_diving_improves_function_of_body_mind_in_vets_with_spinal_cord_injury
We know from our research that participants on our programme often report that they are pain free for the first time since being injured, this is due to the effect of pressure and weightlessness , in diving terms neutral buoyancy. An injured soldier who was left a paraplegic after being shot through the spins in Afghanistan reported that scuba diving, for the first time since being shot allowed him freedom.
One of our programme members, a single leg amputee reported that it was the first time since he was hit by a RPG and the subsequent 50 + surgical operations that he had been pain free. Some report the effect lasts for more than the time when they are underwater.
In the areas of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and Traumatic Brain Injury we have particular success. The Johns Hopkins study showed an 80% reduction in the reported symptoms of PTSD of the veterans who took part in the study. Such a dramatic reduction cannot ne explained away by statistical error.
We understand this and during our post programme interviews our PTSD and TBI sufferers all report the calming effects of being in the aquatic environment. "When my head dips beneath the water, my stress goes! ", "The most calming and beautiful experience of my life" reported another programme member.
Our work is not just on the programme but pre programme and post programme, many of our students go on to qualify as PADI OW divers and beyond. Some have become PADI instructors and many have become good friends.
Our programme started as a Discover Scuba Diving Experience, one pool and three OW dives, but now we are moving towards full PADI OW courses for students able to meet PADI standards through adaptive teaching.
DEPTHERAPY EDUCATION is our second limb is about ADAPTIVE TEACHING, it is about DIVING FOR ALL irrespective of the mental or physical challenge the student faces.
Through our work with injured troops we realised that scuba diver training and certification for 'disabled divers' was locked in the dark ages of issuing certifications to divers under a disabled diving umbrella.
No one was thinking out of the box so through our experience with the injured troops on the Deptherapy programme we decided that Deptherapy Education would focus on wherever possible ADAPTIVE TEACHING and qualify students through main stream scuba agencies such as PADI. The diving world understands PADI 88% of the world's diving certifications are through PADI.
We do understand that some students may be so severely challenged that they will never be able to dive without supervision, either by those qualified as Rescue /Support divers or in some cases by a team of professionals who will support them. Some may be restricted to pool or confined water diving.
Our programme is practical, not some theory based, quasi medical programme but a process that challenges diving professionals to be innovative and to think out of the box, words echoed by PADI's Vice President Mark Caney.
Our professional learn to work with a range of mental and physical challenges in the pool by teaching those who actually have these challenges. They have to discover how you can do a CESA when you do not have use of your legs, or remove, replace and clear a mask when you only have one hand.
Frank Buchanan of the Scuba Trust says that our Pros Course sets the scuba diving industry's standard and that we are far beyond the level of any existing disabled diving agency.
Our programmes etc will be posted on this page and our rejuvenated website shortly.
Our aim is simply to make the scuba industry friendly to those who have mental and physical challenges.
Richard Cullen