Manual Handling Essentials in Aged Care
Pre-webinar Resource
Manual Handling Essentials in Aged Care Recording
Aideen Gallagher
Occupational Therapist and Director of Risk Managed, work health and safety consultant and #1 Amazon Best Selling book - The Manual Handling Revolution. Founded in 2014, Risk Managed helps care organisations and allied health professionals. For in-home care organisations we show them how to maximise their workforce, mitigate their risk and provide quality care. For allied health professionals we give them the skills, knowledge and resources to offer smartcare solutions to their clients.
Aideen explains a moving-and-handling framework developed over 25 years that profiles every client into one of four categories to guide assessment, intervention, care plans, and training.
Clients are first divided into weight-bearing and non-weight-bearing, then grouped by transfer patterns:
(1) walkers who can walk/stand/pivot (with or without aids),
(2) stand-and-pivot clients who can stand and do small pivots but cannot walk between rooms and often use a shower commode chair,
(3) stand-only clients whose feet are “glued” and who need aids such as a wall/mobile rail, sit-to-stand device, or standing hoist to pivot them into a chair, and
(4) non-standers requiring hoist/ceiling track/gantry transfers with no feet on the ground.
The model helps identify mismatches between home routines and ability, supports difficult conversations with clients/families, and aids planning for aging and functional decline.