Moving and Handling People Awareness

About this course.

This course raises awareness of how to move and handle people safely in health and social care settings. Moving and handling people — for example helping someone to stand, transfer, reposition in bed, or get up after a fall — is fundamentally different from handling inanimate loads. People can be unpredictable, may resist or move suddenly, may be in pain or distressed, may be unable to support their own weight, and must always be supported with dignity and respect. Poor technique causes serious, often permanent injury to both staff and the people they support, and is one of the leading causes of work-related ill health in the care sector.

The course explains what manual handling is, the legal framework and the responsibilities it places on employers and employees, the range of injuries that poor handling can cause, how moving and handling tasks are risk assessed using both generic and person-centred (individual) assessments, the controversial and unsafe techniques that must never be used, and the safe selection and use of equipment such as hoists, slings, slide sheets and transfer boards. Throughout, it promotes a safe, person-centred and dignified approach that supports each person's independence wherever possible. The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) reports that musculoskeletal disorders account for a large share of work-related ill health, and that handling, lifting or carrying is one of the most common causes of injury in the health and social care sector. This course gives you the knowledge to recognise risk, follow safe systems of work, and protect both yourself and the people in your care.