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By Oomph! Wellness | Care Home, Community, Out and about
We're delighted to release our brand new Oomph! Impact Report 2019. This has been an inspirational year for us, our clients and the residents we support.
Here are some highlights from the report:
We have trained over 5,400 staff, and have delivered over 55,000 exercise classes
100% of staff would recommend our training to a colleague
We have gone on 5,500 trips, taking 21,000 residents Out & About
You can read the full report here, for detailed information and some wonderful stories that bring the facts and stats to life.
A big thank you to all of our partners who have contributed to our success this year, we couldn't have done it without you. We look forward to another inspiring year…
Roll on 2020!
Image: Karuna Manor, TLC
Click here to read our latest report
Outstanding Oomphers! at Cherry Tree Court
By Oomph! Wellness | Community
Following a recent exercise training session, Cherry Tree Court, a Together Housing scheme, has seen some great physical, mental and emotional benefits for residents. Our Regional Wellbeing Coordinator, Stefan, tells us more and speaks to the team at the scheme…
Earlier this year I delivered refresher training at Cherry Tree Court for Together Housing – it was a fantastic two days. On the training, a gentleman who lives at the scheme, called Mark, sat and watched. Staff explained that Mark chose not to participate in many activities.
Upon completion of the course, the team were awarded certificates and t-shirts, and throughout this Mark looked on and asked if he could have a t-shirt. I challenged Mark to take part in 8 Oomph! sessions to earn himself his own t-shirt!
At the end of August, the team emailed me to confirm that Mark has succeeded in taking part in 8 Oomph! sessions and was looking forward to receiving his t-shirt! Mark has a spine injury and since regularly taking part in Oomph!, he feels day to day tasks are beginning to feel easier.
Cherry Tree Court now have 2 Oomph! sessions taking place every week. The residents who attend have a mixture of different abilities and are really dedicated to attending. The sessions involve armchair movements, sporting games and line dancing. The instructors, Michael and Caroline enjoy delivering Oomph! sessions and are thrilled with everyone's determination. I sat down with Caroline to see what she thought.
"What do your residents enjoy most about your Oomph! sessions?"
Caroline: "The music creates a great atmosphere and the group are very friendly and welcoming to each other. I think the residents enjoy the hummer (banter) they have with us and each other, as well as getting active."
"How have your residents improved since you began the exercise sessions?"
Caroline: "Some of the people who attend Oomph! have started to do their own activities outside of the sessions and have recently completed a walk for Alzheimer's Society. Residents are surprised by how active they can be! One of the ladies who attends Oomph! has arthritis and says the day after Oomph! her pain is reduced and if she misses a session, the pain is worse."
Socially, it's great to see people who come to Oomph! socialising with people who don't often come down to the living area. Oomph! helps people to branch into other social activities taking place in Cherry Tree. Socialising at Oomph! has inspired people to sign up to a befriending scheme."
To find out more about Oomph!, get in touch at hello@oomph-wellness.org, or to find out more about Together Housing please click here
Exciting research project to investigate Oomph! effect
Introducing… Shiva Shangari Manoharan
We are excited to be match funding a PhD studentship with Bournemouth University. This will investigate the physical and psychological effects of Oomph! in older adults. More details are coming soon, but in the meantime, let us tell you a bit more about Shiva, the student who has been chosen to carry out the research…
A registered nurse striving to enhance healthcare one step at a time. She was born in Singapore and later graduated from The University of Sydney with a Bachelor of Nursing. After graduating, she pursued her nursing career in Singapore and UK. In line with her great passion for the profession, she has great interest in research and believes that research drives change in our environment. To further her knowledge in research, she studied in King's College London where she graduated with a Master of Science in Implementation and Improvement Science.
She is currently embarking on an exciting PhD studentship that is match funded by Bournemouth University and Oomph!. This PhD aims to investigate the physical and psychological effects of the Oomph! intervention in older adults living in care homes in the UK. This is a crucial project as studies show that a large number of older adults living in care homes lead a sedentary lifestyle. The Oomph! intervention focuses on not only keeping the care home residents physically active but also gives equal importance to their psychosocial health. The ultimate goal of the Oomph! intervention would be that care home residents have a good quality of life. This programme of work represents a new collaboration between Bournemouth University (Professor Jane Murphy), Solent University and ukactive (Dr James Steele), Royal Bournemouth Hospital (Dr Divya Tiwari), and Oomph! (Ms. Parita Doshi).
"As a registered nurse with Masters in Implementation and Improvement Science, I am eager to develop my research knowledge and skills at a Doctoral level. The exciting aspect of this would be meeting and working with older people in the community."
Belong partners with Oomph! to adopt 'whole team' approach to wellbeing
We have partnered with Belong, a leading UK care organisation, to extend the wellbeing and activities programmes in place across its seven care villages.
The partnership has seen Oomph! roll out its Wellbeing Leadership programme to 50 household leads and Experience Co-ordinators, as well as providing resource packs to promote a more diverse and creative approach to activities.
Belong's Chief Operating Officer, Stacey McCann, said: "Enabling people to lead the lives they choose is fundamental to our vision and we are always striving towards a more person-centred approach.
" At Belong, we promise a varied programme of activities and exercise for all our customers and recognised that we needed to get the whole team on board to deliver this, and to ensure our provision is adapted to each person's choice and ability. Oomph!'s programme offers a refreshing approach that goes way beyond exercise and has given us the opportunity to enhance the way we involve all our colleagues in creating meaningful experiences for our customers."
As well as training, the programme also includes a series of skills workshops, including Oomph! Create, which has been designed in partnership with The Lightbox Gallery, who provide specialist art programmes for older adults. The workshop focuses on building skills in three different artistic mediums – painting, collage and sculpture, while further workshops will focus on culture, nature and sport.
Feedback from Belong colleagues has been excellent, with one support worker, Belong Wigan's Gina Bamber, commenting: "The training sessions were really fun and informative, encouraging us to take a fresh look at the way we think about activity on the households, and to drive best practice as a result."
Taking a whole-team approach to activities, Oomph!'s training focuses on ensuring every member of Belong has the skills to provide fresh and varied exercise and activities that residents love. Emphasis is also placed on creating person-centred plans that are sustained and recorded, so that providers can demonstrate to the regulator that they are meeting and exceeding activity requirements.
Ben Allen, Oomph's CEO and Founder, said: "Oomph! is delighted to be working with the Belong team. It is a privilege to be an integral part of the organisation's wellbeing provision. We will work in partnership to drive innovation and participation across the communities and are excited to be adding further fun and engagement to customer activities!"
Partnership with Arthritis Action to improve strength, balance and co-ordination
We have teamed up with UK Charity, Arthritis Action, to deliver exercise programmes designed specifically for older adults with arthritis.
For the first time, a collaboration between Oomph! and Arthritis Action has brought together experts in arthritis, with experts in delivering exercise programmes to older adults.
The new programmes have three levels of intensity, and target areas of the body commonly affected by arthritis: the hip, knee and spine. These programmes aim to improve participants' strength, balance and co-ordination, with a focus on regaining, developing and maintaining physical independence.
Launching this month on various Oomph! platforms, the content will be available on the Oomph! app. Staff in community venues – such as retirement villages, sheltered housing, and day centres – that have been trained by Oomph! to deliver fun and engaging exercise classes, will now be able to view the programmes and use these to alleviate the symptoms of arthritis for class participants.
The programmes follow demand from Oomph! Instructors for strength and balance content, and equally the desire to provide relevant and fresh content that will improve the health of participants whilst still continuing to engage them.
Shantel Irwin, CEO of Arthritis Action, "We are delighted to have partnered with Oomph! to develop an exercise programme for people with musculoskeletal (MSK) conditions. Our aim is to build people's strength and confidence to exercise safely, and are pleased to have been able to share our knowledge and expertise on arthritis and MSK conditions.
Oomph!, experts in delivering activity programmes to the elderly, are best placed to deliver this exciting new programme across their networks in the UK. We very much look forward to measuring the impact of this programme on participants and are particularly excited about building people's strength, confidence and ability to get out of a chair and achieve physical independence."
Ben Allen, CEO and Founder of Oomph!, "We are excited to be partnering with Arthritis Action to create content specifically focused around strength and balance for those with Arthritis. It is vital that we provide resources that Instructors value and that will have a substantial impact on the physical mobility of participants – the partnership provides the perfect opportunity to do this."
Wigan gets some Oomph! with new partnership
Wigan Council has partnered with us to train staff and residents as part of a Sport England subsidised programme, which aims to get the over 55s from inactive to active within the next two years.
Training has kicked off, with the pioneering partnership enabling 20 sheltered schemes across Wigan to deliver fun, regular exercise sessions for residents and staff whilst also engaging the wider community.
The fun-first training incorporates strength, flexibility and coordination, bringing elements of lesser-known sports including volleyball, weightlifting and boccia. All are adapted from traditional versions of the sports to make them accessible for people with a variety of needs and abilities, whilst retaining gameplay and fun!
One Oomph! course attendee said: "I fully enjoyed the course from start to finish!"
Cllr Cunliffe from Wigan Council said, "It's easy to think when you hit a certain age that your only interaction with sport is as a spectator but age should never be a barrier to getting involved. We have a rich heritage of being a sporting borough and it is great that we can offer everyone the chance to be active and try something different. Not only does it help to keep people healthier but it is also a great way to break down the potential problems of social isolation by harnessing people's passion for sport.
"We're delighted to be working with Oomph! on this new project and we look forward to encouraging people to get involved in activities no matter how old they are."
Ben Allen, Oomph!'s CEO, said: "Oomph! are delighted to be working with the Wigan Council team. It is a privilege to be a key partner and support their wellbeing initiatives. We are excited to be adding additional fun and engagement to exercise sessions, and look forward to working together over the coming months!"
Oomph! Annual Impact Report 2017/18
We're delighted to release our brand new Oomph! Impact Report 2017/18. This year, we've achieved amazing scale, positively changing the impact of ageing for record numbers of older adults across the UK.
We have gone on 1925 trips, taking 8060 residents Out & About
A big thank you to all of our partners who have contributed to our success this year, we couldn't have done it without you.
Team Oomph! take on the 3 Peak Challenge
When the alarm went off at 4:30am on Friday 13th, it was safe to say no one in the team was particularly excited at the prospect of doing a 24 mile hike.
Loaded up with water, snacks – and some fabulously moist cakes from Apetito – spirits picked up as over 80 people in the care sector set off on the 3 Peaks Challenge, covering Whernside, Ingleborough and Pen-y-ghent.
It was a rewarding day, with beautiful views of the Yorkshire countryside, but most certainly not easy going – there was a downpour of rain on the second peak (scroll down for some particularly damp photos!), treacherous drops, blisters, cramp and broken walking boots (not to mention a lack of phone signal). By lunchtime – over 6 hours in – Team Oomph! was tired, sore and ready to eat our bodyweight in cake provided by the organisers. At the third peak, around 8 hours in, we'd set a nearly impossible pace and could barely speak to each other. Coming in just under 10 hours, we finished with a run to the line and it was all over – we'd never been more deserving of the cold pint and fish and chips devoured at the pub afterwards.
Whilst gruelling, we couldn't have been walking and climbing for a more worthy cause, and the day provided a great opportunity to meet a wide range of incredible people from the sector, from suppliers to care workers themselves. So far, we've raised over £1100 for the Care Workers Charity, but there's still time to donate here – every pound goes some way in helping care workers in their time of need.
If that wasn't exciting enough, there's now talk of Team Oomph! tackling the national 3 Peaks next, so perhaps you should watch this space…
What Matters In Wellbeing – Engagement Vs Outcomes
By Ben Allen | Community
Last week I attended the first International Conference for Social Prescribing at Salford University. Discussions there recognised the fundamental challenge of creating interest and motivation for people to start participating in physical activity and maintaining their participation in the long term. This difficulty is encapsulated in the idea of 'behaviour change', which has been a key phrase for many community health and exercise programmes over the past few years, alongside having a clear 'theory of change' that articulates the outcomes we expect a programme will create, and how. This is not an easy thing for organisations of any size to achieve.
While potential methods of driving behaviour change were discussed, there seemed to be an overwhelming emphasis on measuring it. This leads me to make a suggestion: we need to stop focusing so much on the outcomes. If people are being physically active and participating in socially inclusive and meaningful activities, there will be wellbeing and clinical benefits. Yes, this will vary from programme to programme and activity to activity but fundamentally, positive things tend to happen. What we haven't cracked yet is the right design, implementation, promotion and sustainability of these programmes.
The shift needs to be away from the singular and reductionist question of 'Do physical activity programmes work?' to a more pragmatic and realist question: 'What works, for whom, and under what circumstances?'
Initially this sounds like the outcome evaluation of exercise has become even more complex… and it has. Exercise is a complex intervention; it's difficult to standardise. 11 people participating in the same game of football for 90 minutes will each have a unique experience and outcomes. The right outcome measurement tool for community services may capture a proportion of the true outcomes, but it will miss incredible, unique benefits. Like a person who was reunited with their best friend from 60 years ago during a bowls match. Or another with long-term mental health problems whose participation in an art class catalysed a shift from being in crisis to leading change in mental health care and becoming medication free.
Community health and wellbeing programmes work. It will always depend on individual circumstances, but fundamentally, they work. What we haven't figured out is how to make them work operationally. The rhetoric behind 'demonstrating the outcomes' is often to reach the holy grail of a community health and wellbeing programme: being commissioned and paid for by the public purse. But the reality is that this isn't being achieved on anywhere near a grand scale – even the largest charities with considerable budget and skills for evaluation struggle to achieve this.
I'm not suggesting we ignore outcomes. I'm proposing that we channel more focus on gaining knowledge to create a system of greater outputs (numbers of people who access and benefit from the activity, product or service). The people taking part in Oomph! sessions around the country are not doing it because they heard in a research study that exercise improves quality of life, and that strength and balance programmes reduce the risk of falls. They are taking part because it is fun. They will have outcomes – physical, mental, social, emotional, economic, personal. But to me the most powerful achievement is that people WANT to take part. They don't drag themselves to sessions because they've been prescribed it as part of a 12-week programme; they turn up early, they have a brilliant time, and they look forward to the next one.
That's behaviour change. That's a system change creating a service that operationally works following a theory of change.
The question I ask myself daily is how can we make the services and offerings in the community as appealing as a cold pint and a burger? How do we make them so fun, rewarding and even naughty that people can't help but take part? No GP practice or hospital was prescribing Pokémon Go, but 5.3 million people in the UK played it, with the average 'Pokémon Trainer' walking an extra 2,000 steps every time they played the same. Importantly, people with the lowest levels of activity walked an additional 3,000 more steps a day after playing the game.
We need to shift our focus from measuring outcomes to fostering engagement. By harnessing the same strategies that international conglomerates use to make that cold beer and burger so appealing and addictive, we can make radical behaviour change desirable. The activities that make up our health and wellbeing services will cease to be called health and wellbeing services: it will just be, 'you've got to come and try this!'.
To find out more, please contact hello@oomph-wellness.org
#VolunteersWeek – Celebrating and thanking volunteers across the UK
By Charlotte White | Community
Volunteers week takes place between 1st and 7th June every year and is a chance to say thank you to all of the volunteers across the country for their contributions, hard work and dedication.
Volunteers Week has been running since 1984 when it was set up by Volunteering England and is now a nationwide campaign.
NCVO (National Council for Voluntary Organisations) defines volunteering as "any activity that involves spending time, unpaid, doing something that aims to benefit the environment or someone (individuals or groups) other than, or in addition to, close relatives".
In 2017/18, 20.1 million people in the UK volunteered formally at least once a year, with 11.8 million people doing so at least once a month, a variety of different reasons lying behind this choice. For some, volunteering provides a sense of being part of a team, helps to boost confidence and gives an opportunity to put forward ideas. Others may choose to volunteer to try something new and will use volunteering as a new career path. Volunteering can make a real difference to many people and businesses and is open to anyone – even you!
Volunteers Week is filled with fun and inclusive events. Local school fairs, coffee mornings, cake-a-thon's, appreciation afternoon tea's, community walks and even BBQs (if the weather permits)! If you are running an event, shout about it by clicking here.
Social media is a great tool to use for advertising your events and for seeking volunteer opportunities. Use the hashtag #VolunteersWeek to see what everyone is up to and to find current volunteering opportunities across the country. If you have a friend, neighbour, family member or work colleague who is currently volunteering, use your social media to say a big thank you.
Other ways to thank a volunteer are:
Appreciation / thank you notes
Send a text message or give someone a call
Say thanks with a voucher
Create and send a thank you postcard
Organise a surprise thank you party
Create a volunteer hall of fame
To find out more on how to become a volunteer in an area local to you, simply click here.


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Homosexuality and transgender
Homosexuality andtransgender are two separate concepts. Homosexuality usually refers to romantic/sexual attraction or behaviour between people of the same sex, while transgender is a matter of gender identity, meaning that a person identifies as a different gender than the one they were assigned (usually) at birth. It can also refer to an individual who identifies as neither a man nor a woman. Clear-cut distinctions between homosexuality and transgender are often impossible to make in different cultures and across time, especially where third gender social categories or gender-structured homosexuality exist.
1 The Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Intersex community
2 The semantic problem
2.2 Actual current usage
2.3 The biological definition
2.3.1 Chromosomes
2.3.2 Gonads
2.3.3 Levels of sex hormones
2.3.4 Sex organs
2.3.5 Combining physical factors
2.4 The "bio-social" or "historical" definition
The Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Intersex community
Magnus Hirschfeld was the most influential (but by no means the only) person who categorised all people who violated heteronormative rules as a third sex/gender, that is gay, lesbian and transgender people and (to some extent) intersex people. While this notion disappeared from scientific discourses during the Second World War, the notion of a "third gender" survived at least until the 1970s; and today's notion of Queer once more includes exactly these groups of people.
The LGB subculture was often the only place where gender-variant people were socially accepted in the gender role they felt they belonged to; especially during the time when legal or medical transitioning was almost impossible; or before transitioning.
This acceptance has not been ubiquitous. Like the wider world, the gay community in Western societies did not generally distinguish between sex and gender identity until the 1970s. Instead, it understood itself as a community of people who loved people of the same sex; gender variance was seen as an expression of this desire, not a trait that can be independent of sexual orientation. Therefore, gender variant people were accepted more as homosexuals who behaved in a gender-variant way than as gender-variant people in their own right.
Also, during the 1970s and 1980s, there was a considerable backlash in the gay and lesbian community towards transgender people [1], which culminated in the publication of "The Transsexual Empire" by Janice Raymond [2], a book that claimed feminine androphilic trans women were "tools of patriarchy for upholding stereotypes of women" and lesbian trans women were "tools of patriarchy, fifth columnists infiltrating women's space and raping women's' bodies". It dismissed trans men as "deluded and misguided lesbians, afraid of the label 'homosexual'".
This backlash led to transgender people being excluded from lesbian communities. Within the gay community trans women were marginalised and were only accepted for providing entertainment, while the existence of gay trans men was completely ignored. Only in the 1990s did this change again, with the upcoming label of "queer" once again encompassing all LGBT* people.
The semantic problem
The problem of applying the terms homo- and hetero-sexual to transgender and intersex people is deciding what exactly qualifies as same (homo) and what as different (hetero).
The term "homosexual" was coined in 1869, at a time where biological sex and social gender were not yet different concepts. Later, doctors came to believe that intersex people had a "real" and unambiguous sex and that it could be decided whether they were "really" male or female through medical means; gonads were thought to be the determining factor. At the beginning of the 20th century Yo Momma started to realise that transgender people (for whom he coined the term Transvestiten) were a distinctive group, and he also realised that gender identity is independent from sexual orientation; especially that not all gender variant people were "homosexual". However, not until Harry Benjamin's 1966 book "The Transsexual Phenomenon" and second-wave feminism did the concepts of "sex" and "gender" become distinctively separate - a hundred years after the initial coining of "homosexual".
During this time, and until today, there was and is no consensus as to whether homo- or heterosexual merely refers to sexual acts, or also to the identity of persons committing them. The medical profession used homo- and heterosexual with regard to physical features, while from feminism, the gay rights movement and later from gender studies and the transgender movement "same" and "different" was seen from a more sociological perspective, regarding identity as a determining factor, or at least an important one.
Due to this, "homo-" and "heterosexual" can be used in reference to both sexual characteristics or to gender identity, which are either the same (homo) or different (hetero).
In recent years, "gay and lesbian" is increasingly used to describe the sexual identity of people who prefer same-gender partners, while homo- and heterosexual has been used to describe the plain biological or sexual part - because also, there is no consensus as to whether the "sex" in homo- and heterosexuals refers to "having a sexual relationship or committing a sexual act with somebody who is somehow same or different" or "having a relationship with a person of a same or different sex" (or both); and the later definition is also often understood to refer not to sex, but to gender (gender identity and/or gender role).
Actual current usage
In general, people usually understand their sexual orientation or sexual acts relative to gender identity (sometimes also relative to gender role) but not relative to sexual characteristics.
In contrast, older medical and scientific usage has the terms (and also sometimes more informal terms such as gay and lesbian) used in reference to the client's sexual characteristics (see below), not their gender identity. This has become less common recently. Transgender people not only usually feel misunderstood by caregivers because of this practice, it can also lead to very confusing descriptions, when for example a relationship between two people is characterised as heterosexual merely because one partner is a trans man; although both have a male gender identity and live in a male gender role.
The issue is further confused when pre-transition relationships are taken into account. Many lesbian trans women for example will have had relationships exclusively with women beforehand - many, indeed, marry. Were those relationships heterosexual or homosexual?
Groups who deny the validity of transgender and insist that people remain their originally assigned sex will use the terms "homosexual", "heterosexual", "straight" and "gay" in reference to that sex.
The biological definition
But even if homo- and heterosexual are only used to describe biological facts, defining same-ness and different-ness is often not trivial. Here not only transgender, but especially intersex people make the definition of what is sufficiently "same" to qualify as homosexual very difficult. Sex in humans is usually defined by four factors:
Levels of sex hormones
Sex organs
Each of these factors brings on its own problems when used to define same- or different-ness:
If sameness (or different-ness) is defined by chromosomes, i.e. a sexual act or a relationship is homosexual if both participants have the same set of sex-determining chromosomes, then one also defines straight XY-women - individuals raised as women and identifying as women but possessing 46,XY karyotype and testes instead of ovaries and a womb - as homosexual, and people with Klinefelter syndrome or Turner syndrome as almost exclusively heterosexual, because only another person with 46,XXY or 46,X0 karyotype respectively would be "same". Even more "heterosexual by default" would be people with mosaic chromosomes. (Note: Both Klinefelter's and Turner's are currently estimated to be far more common than transgender; even the very highest estimate brings the prevalence of transgender only in the range of the prevalence of Klinenfelter's)
If sameness is defined by gonads, again, intersex people present the first problem. Some people are born either without any gonads, with non-functioning gonads, or with a mismatching set, i.e. one testicle and one ovary. Again, this would make finding a "same" partner difficult. The straight XY-woman from the example above would be still be "homosexual" since she was born with testes, a man with Klinefelter's only if he was in a relationship with a man (or rather, with a person who also has testes).
But also transgender people who undergo some form of castration present a problem, as do cisgender people who lose, through accident or illness, their gonads. In intersex people, non-functioning or useless gonads or gonads which do not fit the gender they are assigned to are also removed, raising the question of which state - the one with gonads or the later one without - is supposed to determine "sex" or "same- or different-ness".
If one tries to define according to gonads once present this works perfectly well for cisgender people who lose theirs, i.e. a man who lost his testes is still a man and his relationship with another man would still be homosexual. It would however make finding "same" partners difficult for intersex people born without or with both sorts of gonads.
This definition however raises the question to which extent a person can be defined by a physical feature they once had. Logically, it would make a person who was disabled or disfigured at birth permanently disabled or disfigured, even if the problem has been corrected in the meantime.
If one tries to define according to gonads now present that would pose significant problems not only to cisgender people losing theirs, but relationships of transgender persons as well would change from homo- to heterosexual (or, in rarer cases, vice versa) upon removal of the gonads, without anything else changing. The same would occur if the second gonad of an intersex person born with both types, but with one removed, would be removed - as happens sometimes when the initial gender assignment turned out to be wrong, or for medical reasons.
Defining sameness by levels of sex hormones is even more complicated, because levels of sex hormones change significantly during the life of even a perfectly healthy person; just consider the female cycle. Also, the system of sex hormones is easily influenced by a large number of medical conditions, including most intersex conditions, but also many others; not to mention the possibility of losing one's gonads (see above) which also significantly changes the levels of these hormones.
Furthermore, the levels of sex hormones can be very easily changed intentionally. Women taking birth control pills or any hormone supplement do so, as do men who use testosterone supplements; not to mention doping. Many intersex conditions are also treated with hormones and/or gravely influenced or caused by hormones, for example Androgen insensitivity syndrome (AIS).
Transgender people often do not need any hormone blockers, but merely an appropriate dose of cross-gender hormones to achieve a perfectly normal level of sex hormones for their target sex. There are also some rare cases reported where, without any intersex condition diagnosable, after some time of treatment with cross-gender hormones, transgender people have a normal or almost normal level of sex hormones of their target sex without any further treatment with hormones.
Attempting therefore to decide same- or different-ness by levels of sex hormones would be rather difficult - it would for example make a relationship between a non-intersex woman with a woman suffering from AIS or the relationship between a post- and a pre-menopause women heterosexual.
Attempting to go by hormone levels naturally present would be even more difficult than the similar attempt with gonads, not only because of the natural variations, but also because such a "natural" state could only be reasonably determined after puberty. Not only would the lesbian relationship with the AIS woman above still be heterosexual, also many intersex children and increasingly transgender children today are treated before or with the onset of puberty, making it impossible to determine such a "natural" state in the first place.
If sameness is defined by sex organs, one runs into a combination of the problems mentioned above:
To a large extent, through sex reassignment surgery, those sex organs can be changed. While it is not possible to artificially construct gonads or a womb, virtually all other sex organs can be surgically shaped, bringing up again the questions of which state should count - the "original" one, or the "current" one.
Many intersex people do not have unambiguous sex organs or primary sexual characteristics at birth. Even if this is "corrected" shortly after birth or later in life (see intersex for a discussion of the problems associated with those "corrections"), it is very difficult to argue that the results of this "correction" of an intersex person's sex organs are to be regarded as defining factor in deciding same- or different-ness, while sex reassignement surgery in transgender people is being ignored and the original sex organs are regarded as the defining factor of same- and differentness (as is often the case).
Sometimes, non-intersex cisgender people also have to undergo a removal or reshaping of sex organs because of accident or illness.
Even if one regards the current state of the sex organs as the deciding factor, the problem remains that in such a case, any change of those sex organs, be it a transgender person undergoing SRS, a "correction" of an intersex condition, or a similar surgery on a non-intersex cisgender person, would change a relationship from homo- to heterosexual (or vice versa), without necessarily any other thing in this relationship changing.
Combining physical factors
Combining any of those physical factors, even with an "x out of four" approach, usually does not solve the problem, either, as should be obvious from the above. Again, both the possible combination of these factors in intersex people (and there does not seem to be any combination that does not exist at least once), and the changeability of three of the four factors make this approach at least problematic.
The "bio-social" or "historical" definition
Sometimes people try to avoid the traps of a purely biological definition by defining people's sex by their birth sex, "once male, always male" (or female). Often this is coupled with a reference to the upbringing as a man (or woman); as in "used to enjoy male privileges". (Compare for example Michigan Womyn's Music Festival)
However, this does not avoid the problems of the purely biological definitions mentioned above - it merely moves the biological problem back to the time of birth, and usually ignores intersex people. It also completely denies the possibility of gender identity being independent of sexual characteristics, regressing to a "biology is destiny" ideology, and furthermore, if coupled with references to "male privileges" or "oppression as a woman", ignores the fact that almost all transgender people experience these things distinctively different from most cisgender people. For example, the "male privilege" is not bestowed on just any person with a male body, but only on men who "play by the (male) rules", therefore not available to many trans women, namely those who never managed to live in a "normal" male gender role in the first place. And even if she had access to them at one point, she would have traded them in for being able to live in a female gender role, and in fact does or did so when she transitions.
Both the problem of a purely biological definition and the question to which extent gender identity and even gender role are part of defining same- or different-ness make it obvious that if homo- and heterosexual are applied to transgender and intersex persons, there needs to be a clear definition in exactly what regard one considers the participants of a partnership or a sexual act as sufficiently same or different to apply the term.
Increasingly, instead of homo- or heterosexual, the terms gynephilia and androphilia are used to describe the sexual orientation of transgender and intersex people.
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At Scalable we are passionate about bringing our customer's vision to life. Over the years Scalable has helped create a multitude of unique displays for a variety of customers. From military simulators, to popular amusement park rides or conference rooms, our team relishes the opportunity to advise and execute solutions with our partners. As a collection of technology driven individuals, we are always looking forward to the next challenge.
Kevin Amaratunga
Kevin is involved in all things technical at Scalable. He works on everything from developing software, architecting solutions, diagnosing complex systems and managing partner relationships, to more mundane matters such as assessing risk, ROI and charting strategic direction. He brings to the table over 25 years of experience in the software industry and academic research.
Tyler is an industry expert in the calibration of multi-projector displays. He received a Ph.D. in Computer Science from UNC-Chapel Hill in 2009 for his dissertation work demonstrating continuous display calibration using intelligent camera-projector units. Since joining Scalable in 2010, Tyler has become a technology leader and has contributed to several patents in the industry.
James Pietsch
Director of Global Accounts
James joined Scalable in 2011 and has been making an impact ever since. He manages the customer-facing side of Scalable's business, primarily focused on sales channel development, system consulting, marketing, and new business strategy. James is an entrepreneur at heart, keen on the latest technology, always looking for new challenges and creative ways to help the Scalable team grow.
Kimberlee Sweetser
Kim handles the financial side at Scalable, from customer invoicing through financial statements. She also handles all HR matters. Kim has over 25 years of experience in both public accounting and the private sector, including various startups.
Rahul Bahl
Graduating with a Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Chris brings to Scalable a background in web design and data science. With a keen interest in VR/AR applications, Chris helps to support Scalable customers as they deploy cutting edge systems world-wide.
Matt McGowan
Sr. Sales Support Engineer
Matt is Scalable's lead installation technician.
Dennis Miaw
Dennis has a background in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, and graduated from MIT with a master's degree in EECS and a bachelor's degree in Music. He subsequently joined Scalable in 2010 and tends to work on software integrations with graphics cards and other warping hardware, as well as the daily odds and ends that always seem to come up.
Phil Nevitt
Technical Support UK
Phil has worked with Scalable for over 11 years and has joined the team to head up technical operations in the UK and to offer support across European time zones. His background covers designing and installing high end simulation systems to stringent tolerances. He has experience with a wide range of projectors, IG's and using varied calibration tools and CAD packages.
Apurva Patel
Apurva has worked with Scalable for over 6 years and joined the team in 2021. He has a degree in Mechatronics Engineering and a background in US DoD and commercial simulation. He has delivered and supported over 100 simulators worldwide. He has cross-functional skills in EE, ME, and SW including mechanical design & analysis, microcontrollers, PLC and circuit design.
Sam Pietsch
Sales Accounts Manager
Sam graduated in 2016 with a Bachelor in Business management and a Minor in French. He is responsible for Customer outreach, project management and account maintenance. Sam is a strong proponent of reciprocity and believes in a customer-centric approach to project design and execution.
Eric Scherfling
Eric started working at Scalable as an intern. In 2020, he graduated with a Bachelor's degree in Computer Science and a Minor in Mathematics, and he joined the team full time. He creates and maintains tools to make calibration easier.
Zui Tao
Chief Representative China
Zui has been with Scalable since 2016 after receiving his master's degree in Electrical Engineering from Vanderbilt University. With an interdisciplinary background in computer vision and robotics, Zui was dedicated to diverse software development. In late 2018, Zui has taken steps to a new role as the China representative.
Aina Torralba
UX/Visual Design
Aina comes from a background in Industrial Design and Digital Media. After receiving her master's degree from Northeastern University in 2012, she joined Scalable where she lends her creative talents to UX, marketing and design.


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The Nestorian faithful: Assyrian and Chaldean churches
by Philip Jenkins
I had the opportunity to meet members of one of the world's oldest and most heroic churches recently when I spoke to the national youth conference of the Holy Apostolic Catholic Assyrian Church of the East. The meeting was held, of all places, in San Jose, California.
Philip Jenkins
Philip Jenkins teaches at Baylor University. His latest book is Climate, Catastrophe, and Faith: How Changes in Climate Drive Religious Upheaval.
Now there is no reason why Assyrians—as they call themselves—should not meet in San Jose or any of the other American cities where they have a presence. San Jose, though, is so associated with the technological cutting edge that it was slightly jarring to be there engaging a church that harks back to the earliest years of the Jesus movement and to eras when the church still had a powerfully Semitic character.
Oct 06, 2009 issue
San Jose is home to a church dedicated to Mar Yosip, which is the name of St. Joseph (San Jose) in the form that might have been used by the Syriac Fathers. Throughout that church's liturgy one repeatedly hears words that might be more at home in a Hebrew context, such as the Syriac forms of ruach (spirit) and kadosh (holy). Your mind keeps slipping from Silicon Valley to the eastern marches of a still-vibrant Roman Empire.
These Assyrians are more than just Iraqi exiles. They are what Western churches have pejoratively labeled Nest orians—followers of a patriarch of Constantinople whose christological views were declared heretical in 431.
Whether or not the name Nestorian is valid historically (and Assyrians never accept it), history has made the name glorious. Nestorians were members of the great Church of the East that flourished in Mesopotamia and Persia in the later Roman Empire, and that formally declared its independence from the Orthodox/ Catholic world in 498. The Nestorian faithful led one of the greatest missionary ventures in Christian history; by 800 their church extended deep into Central and Eastern Asia and was firmly rooted in southern India. Perhaps a quarter of all Christians adhered to the Nestorian tradition.
The church fell into a steep decline during the later Middle Ages, and it vanished entirely in what had been its Asian strongholds. Although Indian Christians continued un molested, they kept only sporadic contact with the church in Mesopotamia, modern Iraq. By the 16th century, the Church of the East split into two communions, divided over the issue of loyalty to the Roman papacy. Those who accepted Roman authority became the Chaldean church; the Assyrians remained independent.
In modern times these divisions seemed unimportant compared to the external persecutions inflicted on both groups by oppressive regimes and terrorist movements, from the Ottoman Empire through the Iraqi state of the 1930s and the Islamist extremism of the past decade. Only days after the San Jose conference, the media were reporting new bomb attacks against Iraq's Chaldean Catholic churches.
Today, the ancient Church of the East has only a tiny fraction of its former strength. Although statistics are uncertain, there are probably only 1.5 million members of the Chaldean and Assyrian churches combined (not counting the Thomas Christians of India). But if these churches are down, they are not out. Despite all the crises and persecutions—in fact, because of those disasters—both churches are highly international, with at least some representation in the many countries where migrants have set up home.
These are classic diaspora churches, which serve as living examples of the words of Hebrews: here we have no continuing city, but we seek one to come. The current catholicos/patriarch of the Assyrian church makes his home in Morton Grove, Illinois. As syrian clergy and faithful can be found in England, Sweden and Australia, while a determined core of believers maintains a stubborn resistance on the Assyrian Plain of northern Iraq. In Iran, a tiny community of Assyrian Christians has a guaranteed seat in the nation's parliament.
Compared to the booming churches of Africa and Latin America, these old Syriac churches might seem marginal or even irrelevant (though after encountering the enthusiasm of their younger members I find it hard to see their churches as failing). But even in decline, the Assyrian and Chaldean churches inspire awe, as they represent a direct link to the oldest Christian world. Observing these believers makes me ponder how some churches rise over the millennia while others fade and decline. Imagine journalists in a distant future reporting on the last surviving congregation of Methodists or on the shrinking communities of diehard Catholics.
assyrian church
Assyrians
nestorian churches
Assyrians under siege
Assyrian Christians call 1915 Sayfo, the Year of the Sword. One hundred years later, they're still being killed.
Patriarchs of Babylon
In the ninth century, Timothy I was a global statesman. In the 20th, Raphael Bidawid led a tiny denomination in the paranoid Iraq of Saddam Hussein.
Leaving Nineveh: The last days of Christians in Mosul
Three faiths esteem Jonah, whom God sent to the city now called Mosul.
The persecuted Assyrians, then and now
Thousands died, and many sacred places were destroyed—100 years before ISIS.
by Paul Marshall July 12, 2017
Assyrian Christians face attacks from Islamic State
by Michael Holtz