During the last blog, we looked as how the ICF can guide our assessment for an individual’s posture and seating needs, including how their environment and personal factors influence our choices.
Now that we know how to complete a holistic assessment, what do we do with that information, where do we go next?
Products change frequently with new developments in assistive technology, so it can be challenging to know all the different models of seating and combinations of their features and attributes to best meet the needs of the people we worth with. That’s where a collaborative approach can really benefit everyone involved.
To conduct a collaborative assessment, we need to come armed with our seating goals and clinical information that will guide the process further. This might include:
- Presentation of pelvis and spine, interaction between the two and influence of one on the other.
- Joint ranges of hips, knees, ankles and in combination with each other.
- Head control.
- Attitude and range of arms.
- Previous and current pressure history, ability to pressure relieve.
- Transfer method, aids and assistance required.
- Whether any splints or braces are in use, their frequency and duration.
- Any previous or planned surgeries that might affect posture or muscle tone.
- Any medications that might affect muscle tone.
- Any allergies or skin conditions that might affect temperature control or material used.
- How continence is managed.
- Whether there are any feeding implications, e.g. a PEG feed in situ.
- Any other medical attachments, e.g. suction, ventilation or oxygen therapy.
- The environment in which the seating will be used and who will be involved in its use.
- Personal preferences of the user, e.g. colour, material of seating covers.
With this kind of comprehensive checklist, we can ensure that our seating choices are clinically informed to ensure that the most appropriate seating is selected.
The benefits of collaborative assessment is that when you communicate your seating goals to a product specialist, they can guide and identify the seating that meets those goals from their product range. A product specialist knows their equipment inside and out, how it is made and whether there are any customisable elements. They have a unique set of knowledge and skills to bring to the assessment by way of what can be made and which combination of features are compatible to be used together in meeting the seating goals and clinical needs.
Taking a collaborative approach that includes the individual, their family and carers, their postural specialist therapist and product specialist ensures that everyone’s thoughts and ideas are considered in a way that is realistic and achievable. It is not always possible to achieve every single goal as sometimes one feature can be incompatible with another, so having a shared discussion of the priorities and where compromises can be considered is invaluable. This also helps to manage expectations and to understand the timeframes required to build seating to the required specifications.
If you would like to complete a joint assessment for someone you’re working with and would like to find out more about the seating assessors at CareFlex, take a look at this previous blog: Dedicated Seating Assessors.
More about the ways in which CareFlex can support specialist postural professionals can also be found here: Supporting Seating Professionals.
Written by our guest blogger, Lauren Osborne, an Independent Posture & Wheelchair Specialist Occupational Therapist.
