This week Lauren Osborne @LaurenOsborneOT is hosting here is what she had to say,
I’ve just completed my MSc in Rehabilitation and Posture Management and my dissertation was a scoping review looking at “What is the evidence for 24 hour posture management?”. I concluded from the literature that posture management is a pre-requisite to occupational performance and therefore, I feel that it should be central to our work as OTs when working with people with complex physical disabilities. I would like to see it as part of the pre-registration OT training and to develop national guidance and NICE guidelines. I believe that posture management is a safeguarding and human rights issue because the people who need it are unable to change position independently and therefore rely on others to protect their body shape from distortion caused by gravity, which can have devastating effects through the development of skeletal deformities and contractures, leading to compromised respiration, digestion etc.
My questions for the discussion are:
1. What is your understanding of the term 24 hour posture management?
2. Did your pre-reg course include any training on posture management and/or positioning for people with complex physical disabilities?
3. How confident would you feel to assess a person for postural seating or night-time positioning equipment?
4. When assessing people’s ADLs, do you consider their posture e.g. can they sit unsupported to use their hands freely? Can they hold their head up to see?
5. If someone is unable to sit upright with their arms free and hold their head up, how can we as OTs best support them to engage in activity?
6. What could you do in your setting to increase awareness and knowledge of the importance of posture management?
OTalk 
Postural managment is essentual for children unabke to reposition themselves.
There was no pre reg training on complex physucal disabilities.
LikeLike