Manual Handling and Mobility in Aged Care

Chapter 10: Manual Handling and Mobility

Overview:
This chapter concerns the following:

• Resident mobility
• Mobility assessments and classification
• Staff safety
• Minimising manual-handling injuries
• Manual-handling training
• Role of management
• Manual-handling coordinator
• Lifting equipment and manual-handling aids

Description:
The mobility and manual handling of people is an important aspect of aged care and an integral part of occupational health‐and‐safety practice. Outlined in this chapter are essential skills in mobility and manual handling that are pivotal to the provision of quality care giving in aged care.

Topics:

• Introduction
• Resident mobility
• Mobility assessments and classification
• Staff safety
• Minimising manual-handling injuries
• Manual-handling training
  • Principles
  • Content
• Role of management
  
  • Manual-handling coordinator
  • Lifting equipment and manual-handling aids
• Slide sheets
• Manual-handling belts
• Conclusion

Speaker / Author:

Lynn Varcin‐Coad

Lynn Varcin-Coad is a physiotherapist and Feldenkrais practitioner who has her own consultancy business, ‘Manual Handling Systems’. As a result of her professional experience and studies (including her master’s degree which researched the topic of spinal loads while repositioning people in wheelchairs), Lynn has developed a unique concept for manual handling.This combines freestyle‐lifting training, body awareness and competency based training for adult workers in aged care and community services.

Lynn has produced manual‐handling videos and training packages independently and in conjunction with the Home and Community Services Resource Unit of Queensland (Australia). She is also a sessional lecturer for the faculty of Nursing and Health and the faculty of Physiotherapy and Exercise Science at Griffith University (Queensland, Australia).

Professional Reviews: