Seminar: Assistive Technology for Community
-Reviewing clinical advantages of equipment choice to achieve Independent Living, Rehabilitation and Reablement goals
Wednesday 24 March 2021 | 9am to 3pm
Technology Park Function Centre, Bentley
Unicare Health is thrilled to be running this seminar for the third time, for community therapists and clinicians looking to upskill and improve their understanding of commonly prescribed assistive technology (AT) for community and in-home care.
Our Assistive Technology for Community seminar reviews the clinical advantages of common AT choices and provides therapists and clinicians with education and skills necessary to prescribe better equipment solutions for their clients.
This seminar was facilitated by Unicare Health’s clinical educator and trainer, Annette Terranova, who has over 30 years of experience as a clinician and consultant within the aged care sector. Annette is a highly sought after go-to person by therapists working in hospitals, aged care and disability for expert equipment advice and equipment solutions.
Annette started her presentation talking about ageing process over a lifetime and reminded clinicians to look at wellness, enablement and reablement goals when making AT choices.
She talked about the importance of looking at a client’s in-home and community needs in terms of functional independence, comfort, pressure injury prevention, seating and positioning, manual handling mobility management and more.
Commonly prescribed AT for community clients to improve their functional independence at home, such as recline lift chairs, wheelchairs and beds was a huge topic of interest with participants taking notes and listening intently throughout the session.
Using Unicare Health’s range of wheelchairs, Annette discussed the differences between different types of chairs, reminding clinicians of what can be and cannot be achieved with ‘out of the box’ chairs. She also talked about scripting basic wheelchairs like the Quickie2 for home and community use and what clinicians should be mindful of when collecting information about the client for the scripting process.
She also talked about commonly prescribed powered mobility options like Shoprider’s Cougar and Puma power chairs and provided useful insights for clinicians prescribing portable mobility scooters.
Annette also talked about seating support and cushions and how differences in materials and structure of cushions should be accessed for clients with different needs.
Participants had a chance to look inside a range of cushions, sit on them and explore their features to understand how and why these made a difference for clients with unique needs in terms of positioning, pressure care, comfort, microclimate, shear reduction and more.
Using basic foam cushions, the Equalgel cushion, Roho cushions and a range of JAY cushions commonly prescribed for community, Annette also talked about cushion materials and urged clinicians to think about maintenance and suitability of these options for remote communities.
In her presentation after lunch, Annette reminded clinicians that a bed was more than a sleep surface especially for people aging in the community. Highlighting the unique features of beds commonly prescribed for community such as floorline beds, low-low beds and other electric profiling beds with better specifications such as Wissner Bosserhoff’s Sentida beds, Annette taught clinicians how to use the functions of the bed to encourage bed mobility, safe patient transfers and to promote interaction with their environment. She also discussed the advantages and disadvantages of these beds for people living with conditions such as dementia.
The basics of looking at a mattress as a support surface was also a highlight at the seminar. Using Care of Sweden’s range of mattresses, Annette pulled covers apart to discuss the benefits of foam, air and air-foam combination mattresses and the clinical application of these support surfaces and its therapeutic functions.
Participants enjoyed a very informative time at this seminar, many noting on their feedback forms how the skills and concepts taught was invaluable to them as a healthcare professional.
We were delighted to welcome Ruth Jodrell from OT Services Group, a long time friend and customer, who introduced the all new Solutions Centre in Malaga – a collaborate space for therapists, suppliers and clients to come together to view and trial AT.
Thank you
Unicare Health would like to say thank you to all the community therapists, clinicians, and healthcare professionals who spent the day with us, reviewing the clinical advantages of equipment range to achieve Independent Living, Rehabilitation and Reablement goals for community clients.
Unicare Health is glad to be leading the way with education to improve the way Assistive Technology for community is prescribed to achieve better outcomes for community clients.
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Posted on 1 April 2021