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.