Sleep in a Riser Recliner
In this session we will explore the issues around people sleeping in riser recliner chairs – we will look at this issue from a functional occupational performance and a tissue viability perspective.
This session is aimed to enable health care professionals to think around this presenting issue to enable them to have a constructive discussion with people they are working with to come to an agreeable solution.
Learning Outcomes
- Understand from a person’s perspective their reasons for wanting to sleep in a riser recliner armchair.
- Understand the functional postural implications of sleeping in a riser recliner.
- Understand the tissue viability implications of sleeping in a rise recliner.
- Be able to reason with service user’s options for managing a situation where they want to sleep in a riser recliner
Meet our Experts

Jenny is a senior occupational therapist. She qualified in 1997 and completed her MSc in Neuro-rehabilitation in 2007. She has worked in Neurological Rehabilitation at the Battle Hospital in Reading, and the Rivermead Rehabilitation Centre in Oxford which became part of the Oxford Centre for Enablement in 2000. She moved into the Specialist Disability Service at the OCE from where she joined the Oxford MND Centre in January 2007.
Since August 2009 Jenny has been funded full-time by the Motor Neurone Disease (MND) Association to develop NHS wheelchair services across the UK, to improve wheelchair provision for people living with MND.

Sarah has always had a keen interest in Tissue Viability since becoming a registered nurse in 2002. Her experience varies from within a community setting, where she completed her Tissue Viability based degree in 2007. She then worked within the private sector to gain additional advanced wound care skills whilst working with a medical devices company specialised in wound healing. In 2010, Sarah became a Tissue Viability Nurse and shaped a specialised service within the acute sector for 7 years before returning to the community setting as a TVN.
People who watched this also watched...
Pressure ulcers - definition, assessment, prevention
Pressure ulcers are a painful, debilitating condition that can, largely, be prevented. Seen as a measure of harm by NHS England/Improvement and reportable to the CQC in care home settings, understanding how best to protect those within your care from developing a pressure ulcer is an important aspect of care delivery.
Prescribing seating for cognitively impaired users: exploring the risks
When prescribing seating, our aim is to meet the needs of the service user by prescribing a chair that will provide the right level of support, enable safe, easier assisted or independent transfers, reduce risk of pressure injuries and enable them to obtain and maintain a good sitting posture in the provided chair. However when a service user has a cognitive impairment and has poor risk awareness, additional risks are present. In this session we aim to outline some of these possible additional risks and how to overcome them to ensure the service user and their carers/family remain as safe as possible when the service user is seated in a chair that is there to meet their needs.
Enhancing healthcare consultations and interventions: Using a coaching approach for effective patient engagement
Recent research shows that occupational therapy intervention is essential to support healthy ageing and adults living with chronic conditions who have difficulties performing daily activities (Hagelskjær et al. 2024). Equally, physiotherapy is crucial in supporting better physical health for older adults with and without chronic health conditions (Liu et al 2024). Supporting clients to self-manage their health is essential, but this requires specific approaches and communication styles, such as coaching. Join us for this webinar, which introduces how to use a coaching approach to enhance client engagement and intervention.
