How to Approach Patient Handling In A Disability Care Setting

By Nick Horton, Managing Director, Select Lifestyles (www.selectlifestyles.co.uk)

Moving and handling is a complex and sensitive element of care giving, requiring care providers to be as knowledgeable and thorough as possible to get it right. This applies in all settings, but even more so in disability settings when clients are often vulnerable and non-verbal.

When it comes to patient handling, care providers must respect their clients’ dignity – a fundamental aspect of quality care – and have the ability to adapt to clients’ changing needs to maintain a person-centred approach.

What’s more, key health and safety elements must be considered for all parties to remain safe and to reduce injuries. There are many risks involved when it comes to patient handling, but having comprehensive processes in place will allow care providers to apply best practice at all times.

Being aware of the risks
When undertaking patient handling tasks, there are a multitude of potential risks for both carers and clients. For example, both parties could experience physical harm such as skin, tissue or ligament damage if processes aren’t followed and actions aren’t carried out with care.

For clients, there is the additional risk that, without successful patient handling, they could become isolated in their homes or rooms, unable to be a part of the community they live in. To avoid this, care providers should always work in partnership and communicate with other healthcare professionals, such as social workers, doctors, and dentists, to minimise this risk and ensure that clients receive the best possible care.

Another risk to consider is understaffing and busy workloads for carers who are trained in patient handling. This must be avoided at all costs, as the quality of client care is greatly compromised if people rush tasks or can’t complete them at all due to not having capacity. To minimise this, care providers should have good rota planning to ensure the right staff are always in place, as well as ensuring that patient handling training is provided to the necessary people.

Clear roles and responsibilities
In a disability care setting, carers should be aware that they are expected to follow the policies and protocols of patient handling for safety purposes. This includes carrying out risk assessments and a responsibility to follow support plans for individual clients, so everyone receives personalised care.

In addition, carers have a responsibility to communicate with clients and explain what they are about to do, even if they are non-verbal and unable to respond, as this maintains the client’s respect and dignity.

Carers also need to make sure the correct equipment is always used – not only to reduce risks but to make the job easier. People should be able to properly use equipment such as hoists, slings, standing aids, shower chairs, grab rails, slide sheets and wheelchairs – to name a few.

Thorough learning and training
Perhaps the most important element in the steps towards successful patient handling is training, and this should be done yearly so that information stays relevant and up to date.

The best approach for moving and handling training is through practical lessons. It’s a very hands-on element of personal care, so giving people practical experience will allow them to become familiar with the correct processes and methods – something that is vital to ensure they pass the training. Not only this, but in-person training allows learners to get immediate clarification on any questions they might have.

Compliance with patient handling training should also be monitored through practical assessments and regular on the job training, as well as through reviews and client feedback forms.

At Select Lifestyles, we support our staff responsible for patient handling by having a dedicated health and safety team, who are on hand to answer any questions and ensure we are maintaining correct practices across all sites. We also keep track of any incidents, no matter how small, in our accident logbooks to ensure staff are supported to learn from these and ensure they don’t happen again.

Patient handling is such an important element of care giving – it promotes the safety, dignity, and wellbeing of individuals with disabilities, at the same time as safeguarding the physical health and professional wellbeing of caregivers.