Heel and Toe Children's Charity
Mental wellbeing
We'd like to offer hippotherapy to disabled children, which is the use of horse riding as a therapeutic treatment. Our clinical lead is one of few professionals trained in delivering this in the UK.
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About this cause
Heel and Toe provides free therapy to children and young people with profound physical and neurological disabilities. We provide conductive education, physiotherapy, occupational therapy, speech and language therapy, massage therapy, hydrotherapy, weekly and intensive block sessions, delivered by highly qualified paediatric therapists operating from two specially adapted buildings in County Durham. We support more than 220 children and young people from birth to 19 years of age, from across the North East, providing assessments and individual, multi-disciplinary therapy plans that maximise a child's time at Heel and Toe. We receive no government funding and rely on our paid-for services and fundraising activities to provide a wide range of therapy services.
Heel and Toe Children's Charity website
How this cause brings people in the community together
Our project will allow more disabled children to access hippotherapy, a unique service for children and their families to benefit from therapy and physical activity. We will have the opportunity of working with a local riding centre, and can help less active people in the community become more active. Our clinical lead is one of few professional therapists specially trained in delivering hippotherapy to children in the UK; this is a new and innovative service for our region. From research we know the service has many benefits for the children and their family including increased confidence in movement, reduced social anxiety, enjoyment during therapy, less pain suffered, and an increase in strength. They also enjoy reduced isolation and improved cognition.