Advice on postural care for allied health professionals (AHPs)
Introduction
Posture is the shape our bodies form when sitting, lying, standing or moving. Many of us can adjust our position if we begin to feel uncomfortable, experience pain or recognise our position could be harmful.
When we have a movement difficulty caused by an injury, disability or age it becomes more difficult to freely adjust our position. Our body will move in less symmetrical movement patterns leading to a weakness and asymmetry of different parts of the body.
It is important to understand just how distorted someone’s body shape can become if the correct interventions are not put in place. This distortion can have a life threatening and life limiting impact; difficulties with breathing, eating & drinking, experience of pain and high risk of pressure care are just some of the complications.
Your Posture Matters is a suite of resources including a strategy with guiding ambitions and recommendations, a learning framework to support educational development and promotional booklets and posters to support greater understanding of protecting people’s posture. Your Posture Matters aims to inspire service provision across Scotland to work together; a collective ambition to minimise body shape distortion for all individuals with a movement difficulty.
Watch our short introductory animation:
Resources
Your Posture Matters: An introduction to postural care for people with movement difficulties and those who support them
This learning programme aims to increase your understanding of postural care, develop a deeper understanding of how changes in body shape can be prevented and gain confidence to help you deliver optimal care.
This programme is valuable if:
- you or anyone you know has difficulty lying, sitting, standing or walking.
- you care for or work with people of any age who need assistance with mobility or movement.
This resource consists of six elearning modules, each taking approximately 30 minutes to complete.
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