Manual handling and the hoist.

[Michelle_2110]

Hi. I am just wondering if as a new home carer do I have to be officially trained on manual handling and hoist use? If so where can I get this done privately (can anyone recommend a company)?

A bit more info. Dad is in and out. Sometimes he has had problems with mobility in the past and has needed the whole bed roll thing and then hoisting to a wheelchair. At other times he seems to have better mobility and even gets out of bed himself (and gets a proper wash in the bathroom). Yes very weird I know.

I just want to cover myself in case the non mobility days fall when I go to help out. Especially considering that the condition is certain to get worse as time passes.

Thanks.

[Ayjay]

My wife first needed hoisting when she was in a Neurological Ward for three months in 2018 - I was shown how to attach the sling to the hoist and that was all. I had observed the rolling/sling insertion process.

Later, (a lot later), at home, i was tested for my competency at using the hoist on my own, (which paid carers won't do).

[bowlingbun]

Social Services should arrange this free for you, as it's needed for your caring role. When did you last have a Carers Assessment? When did dad last have a Needs Assessment from Social Services and an Occupational Therapist? Are you getting any other help?

[Greta]

I replied on this subject on April 23, apparently. I paid for hoist training (my caree was over the limit). A lady came and showed me, and I also tried the hoist with her sitting in it. I was told not to use it on my own, but over about three years I did once have to, and on another occasion my caree - brother - persuaded a careworker that she could do it alone and it went badly wrong. On another occasion he was sitting in the sling in an ambulance which suddenly had to brake and he was no longer sitting properly, and at home he fell out of it. Things go wrong! and careworkers were not allowed to lift him from the floor.

Unfortunately I am away from home (for another two weeks) so I can't find the details, but this was in 2013 anyway.

My brother had a ceiling hoist and was very heavy. Before this, if he fell an ambulance was called and it had or got hold of a device called a Manga Elk, which the person sits on - has to be able to do that - and is then blown up till he is sitting upright and can stand with help.

As to whether you need to be trained, the most you can do is try to find training. Whether anyone will enforce your doing what is not really safe I doubt. The careworkers should not put their backs out, and of course neither should you.

Have you got some kind of slide sheet for rolling on the bed?

I realize my problems may have been different from yours but have written this in case it helps.

[Melly1]

Michelle,
Whoever measured him for the sling and provided should be able to show you how to use it correctly.
As BB, you should also be able to get manual handling training for free via a Carers Assessment https://www.carersuk.org/help-and-advic ... assessment

As Ayjay and Greta said, paid workers have to hoist in twos, though family carers often do it alone. Generally, it’s easier to hoist alone with a ceiling hoist than with a mobile hoist.

Melly1

[Ayjay]

On another occasion he was sitting in the sling in an ambulance which suddenly had to brake and he was no longer sitting properly,

This is just wrong, whoever was operating the Ambulance should have known better.

S/S used to get uptight about me transporting my wife from bedroom to bathroom in the hoist. Why? We have those very slim metal thresholds that join between carpet or vinyl in both doorways, and she might fall out as it goes over the huge hump.

[Greta]

Well, digressing a bit but we were probably using a private ambulance which was not ideally suited for a bariatric patient but which arrived at good times, whereas bookings of a bariatric NHS ambulance constantly had failings and it was so hard to get him to a hospital that it seemed better to take the risk. He needed cataract ops and also allegedly a circumcision and there were constantly hold-ups. On this occasion we were sent to a walk-in hospital which was totally unable to deal with him and had no hoists at all. On the way there, a child walked straight onto a zebra crossing unexpectedly so the ambulance had to brake. Brother slid forward, walk-in hospital could not help. We needed him to remain sitting in the sling so we could move him. When we got home he slid onto the floor. Paramedics got him up but one insisted on me doing a diabetic blood test. The equipment was there but not like what I had used before. Eventually the paramedic pricked himself on the old needle and then we had to get a blood test to make sure brother did not have HIV.

I could go on. There is a good circumcision story with a happy end too. They gave him a 'dorsal slit' which was relatively painless but allegedly aesthetically inferior - it really didn't look that different. But the problem had been going on for two years and I am pretty sure the doctors involved were waiting for him to solve the problem by dying. Hospitals are not good places for invalids or bariatric patients.

[Lauren_21101]

Have you got some kind of slide sheet for rolling on the bed?

[Mateus_2110]

On another occasion he was sitting in the sling in an ambulance which suddenly had to brake and he was no longer sitting properly, and at home he fell out of it. Things go wrong! and careworkers were not allowed to lift him from the floor.

Very bad situation. Clearly someone's at fault here.

[Greta]

That post by Lauren was actually written by me, Greta.