AdaptAbility Training

23/10/2025

⚠️ Don’t try this at home! Experimenting with slings on my own today and thankfully managed to stay in one piece!!

🤝 Excited to be working with Meath Occupational Therapy Service on an initiative to improve assessment and prescription of moving and handling equipment in particular low support slings.

🎥 Recorded some videos today to share with OT colleagues and analyse what happens in your body as you are lifted with an access/hygiene sling.



Finola Dunne Cathriona Reilly

16/10/2025

👶 ‘First Time Hoisters’ and their reactions

🔹 I always find it amusing when someone is being hoisted from bed (during training) and they go rigid with their legs stretched straight out in front as shown in the picture below. When the security of the bed surface is being taken away, you can see the anxiety come into their face. They are so concerned with holding on and trying to trust the sling, that they are oblivious to what their bottom half is doing and forget that they can actually bend their knees! With a little prompt they relax and become aware of their position.

🔸 This is the reaction of a person who is physically fit and healthy, with the ability to process what is happening and understand that they are safe. Their automatic stress response is still triggered and because they can’t fight or flee, they freeze!

🔹 Now consider what it must be like for someone with pain, joint stiffness, confusion and sensory processing issues; what an uncomfortable experience this must be for them. For someone with advanced dementia each time may feel like the first time. Every step needs careful consideration and planning, with good communication and slow, gentle handling throughout.

🔖 Hoist training and bespoke courses available - come and see what your reaction will be!

Email: help@adaptabilitytraining.ie

Check out our website www.adaptabilitytraining.ie

07/10/2025

🥷 Private OTs - the ‘Liam Neesons’ of healthcare

🥋 As a private Occupational Therapist, I have come to realise that we all have a particular set of skills, and aren’t afraid to use them! Occupational therapists all receive the same undergraduate qualification but with extra training and experience can go on to become experts in a chosen field.

👩‍🦽‍➡️ With my background and training I work in many healthcare settings. More recently I have also started to work with schools around moving & handling; training staff how to assist students with physical difficulties and use hoists or other assistive equipment when needed.

❓ At the end of each training there is always a question about a student who can move, walk or stand but chooses not to! It may be a child who goes to the floor deliberately or someone moving in a certain way to get sensory feedback. In this case safe handling techniques are not the issue; instead we need to figure out what the student is trying to tell us.

🚸 To help staff interpret these behaviours and implement strategies, I can recommend an OT colleague with extensive expertise in this area. Bridget Long of Connect OT, has worked with children for over 25 years and has devised webinars with very practical tips and advice to help teachers and SNAs understand and manage behaviours.

🙌 Sometimes it’s all about knowing who has the right set of skills for the job!

Find attached info on our in-person Manual Handling Training and Connect OT’s Sensory Webinars. Feel free to get in touch with any queries;

help@adaptabilitytraining.ie

20/09/2025

😥 Private practice can be daunting at times. You may be experienced clinically, but have no idea how to run a business!

💡 Events like this are essential for private therapists to share ideas and build new support networks.

👏 Well done to .aineodea, Jen Trzeciak from and Andy O’Gorman for seamless delivery, engaging content and creating lots of opportunities for networking.

As you can see from the photo, we felt totally relaxed and thoroughly enjoyed the day

19/09/2025

16/09/2025

🏫 September is ‘back to school’ time!

👨‍🦼‍➡️ As new students arrive (or a returning student’s condition changes), questions are raised about how to assist someone with a physical disability in a safe and dignified manner at school. SNAs in particular play a critical role in supporting these children and young adults, but often have no experience or training in moving and handling.

🤔 Common Misconception

‘When the Children’s Disability Network Team are involved, they will cover manual handling’.

The CDNT is a specialist team consisting of occupational therapists, physiotherapists and other healthcare professionals whose focus is on the individual and their therapy goals. Their remit may include a demonstration of a handling technique, but they do not help establish safe systems of work or provide staff training. The responsibility for this, under Health & Safety at Work legislation, falls to the school as the employer.

⚠️ Over the past 3 years, we have provided education and training to primary & secondary, special & mainstream schools. SNAs reported to carry out a number of outdated procedures on a regular basis in all of these settings:

- ‘Lifting’ students on to a changer/bed, off the floor or on & off the bus

- ‘Pulling’ students up to stand by their arms from wheelchair or toilet

- ‘Dragging’ students back into their chairs or up & down changer/bed

📊 Thankfully the Department of Education & Youth is aware of this issue and are working to address this. The SNA Workforce Development Plan, which is scheduled for delivery later this year, aims to bring clarity and direction to the SNA service through policy developments in key areas. One of the key areas is the ‘SNA Learning and Development Programme’ which hopes to establish a structured approach to professional learning for SNAs and will include manual and people handling.

🤲 AdaptAbility Training will continue to support SNAs and schools, raise awareness of safe handling and highlight the difference between training (observing each staff member perform a skill or use equipment competently) and demonstration (showing a group of staff how to perform a technique or use equipment).

🪜 While we await further direction from the Department of Education & Youth, we are happy to share our ‘SNA Training Ladder’ to help direct schools in training standards, promote SNA safety & well-being at work and ensure best practice is followed when assisting students with additional needs.

📧 Feel free to contact us to arrange an introductory workshop or discuss your training needs - help@adaptabilitytraining.ie

08/09/2025

📋 ‘Access Sling Assessment’ 📋

Following on from my last post, I wanted to share the key areas to assess when considering an access/hygiene sling. This is not an exhaustive list but gives therapists and staff an idea what to look out for.

✅ Trunk control & Sitting Balance
Can the person support themselves in sitting with no backrest or armrests?
Can they sit at the side of the bed with minimal support?
Once sitting at side of bed or in a chair, can they maintain this position with their feet raised? Remember they need to be able to hold themselves in sitting with NO support from the floor!

✅ Hip extension and flexion
Can they demonstrate hip extension and trunk stability by ‘bridging’ in bed?
Can they maintain hip angle of 90 degrees?

✅ Muscle tone
Do they have abnormal muscle tone, generalised low tone or one-sided weakness?
Do they suffer from ‘paratonia’ which is involuntary high tone with passive movement?

✅ Shoulder stability
Do they have adequate strength in both shoulders to resist abduction or flexion?
Is there a risk of subluxation if they slip down and sling moves up under shoulders?

✅ Understanding
Can the person understand what is involved and hold their position for the length of time required?
Can they communicate if they feel unsafe or experience pain or discomfort?

✅ Cooperation
Can they follow simple instructions e.g. keep your arms outside sling?
Is their behaviour predictable?
Have they any involuntary movements?

Check for criteria before trialling sling!

If used inappropriately, the person’s body weight is being supported through their underarms. Stop use of access/hygiene sling if you notice a hip angle of less than 90, leg straps moving toward knees or the arms sticking up and out (as in photos attached).

‘Why not leave it to the person to decide’

Of course considering the client’s wishes is part of the overall assessment but cannot be the one thing determining the outcome.

The client may not want to accept that circumstances have changed. Explaining the reasons why equipment is not safe and discussing alternative options is an essential part of the assessment process.

To increase staff awareness, I often encourage staff members to get hoisted in this sling and experience it for themselves. Stay elevated in the sling for at least 5 minutes, notice how it feels and consider the effort required by the user.

Monitor & Review

Once the correct sling size is issued and demonstrated you might think the hard work is done, but there is still lots to monitor and review. Continuous risk assessment is vital to ensure safety for both client and carer.

For more information or to discuss bespoke training courses for your team, contact us by email - help@adaptabilitytraining.ie

02/09/2025

Having worked in the community for over 20 years I am still adjusting to life in long term care settings. There are many differences; one being how common access/hygiene slings are in nursing homes.

When I ask why, these are some of the reasons I have heard:

‘We need these slings to transfer to the commode/toilet’

Often referred to as a ’toileting’ sling, staff believe that they need to use this to transfer to a toilet or commode when in fact a full back sling with an aperture can be used instead. A common misconception is that the person would be sitting on a full sling so a quick demo is needed to show otherwise.

If staff believe these are to be used for ‘toileting’, the occupation is dictating the sling rather than the person. As a result low support slings are being used with people who do not meet the required physical or cognitive criteria.

‘It’s quicker to use’

Staff have said that they use the access sling to cut out transfers to bed/changer before and after toileting to undress, wash and dress.

They admit that this may be due to time pressure or it may be used to reduce the amount of transfers for the person.

‘It’s easier with the toileting sling’

Easier for who? For the user, getting washed and dressed mid-air while holding themselves in an access sling is not easy. For staff, the smaller sling is easier to fit and there are less steps involved but it can still be a very demanding activity for all involved.

🚹 Always start with the person 🚹

An access/hygiene sling cannot be issued without a comprehensive assessment of the user’s balance, trunk control, muscle tone, shoulder stability, sensation & proprioception, cooperation and understanding.

Once issued concerns remain:

Will it be used correctly by all staff?
Will it be used only to commode/toilet or as directed?
Will staff risk assess each time for criteria for safe use?
Will staff spot the warning signs to stop use rather than continue and risk injury or fall?

I do not want to be a fear monger, but we need to acknowledge that there have been a number of fatalities after people have slipped through these slings and so serious consideration is needed before introducing them. Services need to stop widespread use of these slings for ‘toileting’ and instead have a very clear moving & handling plan for each person about sling use.

If you are interested in further education or training in this area, please contact us - help@adaptabilitytraining.ie

03/06/2025

🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀

We are thrilled to launch our new 2 day course

‘HANDLING SOLUTIONS’

🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀

We have listened to your feedback over the past 3 years and devised a more comprehensive learning experience which extends past the handling equipment.

Courses will be running from our Navan centre later this year (dates to be released soon!).

Keep an eye on our social media pages for more details.

Even MORE exciting news…🗺️🚘🧭

We will be hitting the road in 2026 to bring this training to clinicians around the country!

At the moment we are considering venues in the South and West of Ireland, so please get in touch if there is interest in your area.

Look forward to hearing from you - phone 086 8244138 or email: help@adaptabilitytraining.ie

31/05/2025

🙌 Deborah Harrison has been putting ‘moving and handling’ on the map for years and continues to develop new assessments and techniques

📢 Deborah provides amazing training with A1 Risk Solutions, but does so much more to spread the word and promote best practice

🫡 Delighted to have attended a number of Deborah’s courses last year and now be able to engage with her and the broader ‘moving and handling community’

🍀 Deborah working with Martina Tierney from Seating Matters is very exciting news indeed - all the best in your endeavours ladies!

A1 Risk Solutions
Seating Matters

28/05/2025

Our training benefits the following people:

🔹 Clinicians and Multidisciplinary Teams - courses will teach you how to work with a person who is experiencing changes to their functional independence and guide them through each stage of the moving and handling process. Healthcare professionals will develop the skills and knowledge necessary to carry out comprehensive assessments, while considering all aspects of the person, environment and occupation. Training is not about giving a list of do’s and don’ts but instead engages clinical reasoning and allows teams to explore creative solutions in collaboration with the person and their care system

🔹 Carers and SNAs - courses will help you feel more confident when using manual handling equipment and hoists. During our hands-on training, you will experience how it feels to be moved with assistance, examine your approach and learn safe handling techniques

🔹 Manual Handling Instructors - courses cater for those who need more training in relation to the equipment used in moving and handling. As the prescribing OT will only demonstrate a hoist, sling or assistive device, manual handling instructors are often asked to cover this area in training sessions to ensure staff are competent to use equipment safely and effectively

🔹 Families - we are available to help educate or work with family members who are assisting in the care of their loved one at home

Please feel free to get in touch about upcoming courses and training. We look forward to hearing from you 🙂

Email: help@adaptabilitytraining.ie

28/05/2025

Hi everyone, I’m Patricia Farrelly, founder of AdaptAbility Training & Consultancy

👋 3 years ago I took a massive leap of faith, left my permanent HSE job and started the new venture that is ‘AdaptAbility Training’

💭 My vision was to create a hub; a place for people to come and learn how to move people in a safe, dignified way

🙌 Since then Adaptability has grown to be so much more!

- We have collaborated with product specialists to facilitate interactive workshops

- We have delivered regular training courses at our facility in Navan

- We have travelled to deliver bespoke training to teams in mental health facilities, primary care centres, older persons services and schools

🎢 The AdaptAbility journey has had its ups and downs! There have been times when I felt isolated and missed my old HSE buddies, however I have never lost the passion for guiding people to do better in this area and in particular improve the hoisting experience for everyone involved.

🙌 Delighted to now share our journey on Instagram, along with Facebook and LinkedIn!