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.
Learning Outcomes
- To outline clinical reasoning for chair provision to a variety of service users
- To increase awareness of risks to users with cognitive impairments/poor risk awareness when assessing and providing specialist seating.
- To out line some of the risk factors and interventions that can reduce risk to service users.
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.
Since qualifying in 2006, Debra has worked as an occupational therapist in both community and in-patient environments. After three years on a mixed NHS and social care rotation, Debra moved to Brent local authority, where she worked for 5 years. In 2014 Debra split her role between managing her own caseload in the private sector and Barnet local authority’s equipment provision service. Debra now runs our seating assessment training programme.
People who watched this also watched...
AI in healthcare: Practical skills for the modern workplace
This webinar demystifies artificial intelligence for healthcare professionals who may feel overwhelmed or uncertain about AI's role in clinical practice. Moving beyond tech jargon and hype, we'll explore what AI actually is, how it works in healthcare contexts, and most importantly, how to use it safely and ethically in your daily practice.
Participants will learn practical applications for documentation, care planning, and clinical research synthesis, while addressing critical concerns about patient privacy, data security, and maintaining professional judgment. Through real-world examples from a physical therapy context, attendees will discover how AI can become a valuable thinking partner and help them reclaim time for patient care without compromising quality or ethics. The session incorporates recent ethical guidance from professional organisations to ensure responsible AI implementation.
Care Act, equipment and adaptations provision and integrated working
This two part webinar outlines key duties in the Care Act relevant to assessment and provision of equipment and home adaptations, as well as key legal principles applied by the courts when analysing local authority policies and individual decisions.
Bed standards and side rail provision
This webinar will discuss the issues around the use of bed rails and bed levers and how we can adhere to the guidance. It will discuss what needs to be included in a risk assessment and explore alternative solutions for managing bed falls.
A live demonstration of the FloorBed and JuniorKit will be included.