FOR RELEASE: September 28, 1999

Proposed Aquatic Therapy Center at CSUN
Would Treat Hundreds of Severely Disabled a Year

After spending years working with CSUN professor Sam Britten in a series of specialized therapy sessions, Lillian became totally independent and even walked down the aisle at her own wedding.

Britten (right)worked with Lillian through the university's Center for the Achievement for the Physically Disabled, which since 1960 has helped bring independence to hundreds of disabled people who suffer from multiple sclerosis, osteoporosis, stroke, arthritis, head trauma, spinal cord injury and other similar disabilities.

But the Center only has the capacity to serve 600 patients a year, and there is a list of more than 100 people who wait an average of two years for treatment.

CSUN has worked with U.S. Rep. Howard P. "Buck" McKeon, R-Santa Clarita, who represents Northridge, in attempting to gain federal funding to expand the center into the Western Center for Adaptive Aquatic Therapy. The proposed 10,000-square-foot facility would include four therapeutic pools, each designed to meet the specialized rehabilitation and habilitation needs of persons with varying disabling conditions. It would be the only one of its kind in the western United States.

Funding for the facility was authorized by McKeon's 1998 legislation, the Workforce Investment Act. He is now working on getting funds appropriated by Congress.

In May of this year, Rep. McKeon sent a letter (also signed by Reps. Howard Berman, D-Van Nuys, Elton Gallegly, R-Simi Valley, James Rogan, R-Glendale, and Brad Sherman, D-Sherman Oaks) to the House Appropriations Committee requesting $2.5 million for the aquatic facility to be included in the new Labor-HHS Appropriations Act.

The total cost of constructing and opening the aquatic facility is estimated at $3.4 million. About $900,000 has been raised so far. The remainder (a little more than $2.4 million) is being sought from the federal government.

"Programs at the Western Center for Adaptive Aquatic Therapy would build upon our 39 years of experience to model and develop adaptive aquatic interventions that would help people with chronic physical disabilities function as well as possible," said Britten, founder and director of the Center for Achievement and who would also head the new center.

"It would serve as a proving ground for innovation in this type of treatment that could be expanded and offered through community-based university programs throughout the United States," he said.

The Center for Achievement has been recognized internationally for its success at rehabilitating people who have made little or no progress after being released from the hospital. It has given hope and encouragement to those whose disabilities, disease or injury have caused them to lose hope and the motivation to improve.

Others who benefitted from treatment at the Center for Achievement include:

• Kathy Fein,(far right) diagnosed with multiple sclerosis, who twice weekly performs rehabilitation exercises and has used "cold vests," adapted from NASA models by Dr. Britten, to maintain her optimal body temperature during exercise. Through these devices, she has safely quadrupled her exercise time.

• Gage Wilson, (right) who exercises to compensate for a slipped disc in his spinal cord. Dr. Britten designed a special rehabilitation program that allows him to transfer safely from his wheelchair and drive a van with adaptive hand controls.

Treatment is provided at minimal cost because the Center is a training facility for advanced or graduate students at CSUN, who serve as the patients' primary therapists.