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Positive Points: Socially Distanced Training Earlier in the month I attended a two-day First Aid at Work (FAW) requalification training course. This qualification must be updated every three years and was originally scheduled to be held in June. As with a lot of events this year, it was postponed and had to be conducted with social distancing measures in place. I couldn’t help but wonder how this COVID compliant training was going to work. However, it was clear that the training providers, Underwood Training, had put a lot of thought into how the  qualification could be achieved without the usual interactions between trainees. These measures started even before the training itself did. Prior to attending the training we had completed a COVID questionnaire declaring ourselves symptom free and agreeing not to attend if we developed symptoms.…

My husband and I recently bought a new car. He was driving it one day, for around 2 hours, and found himself  becoming increasingly uncomfortable. As in most vehicles, the drivers’ seat is multi-adjustable. The angle and height of the seat, it can be moved forward and backwards, and the angle of the back rest is adjustable. The problem was that he just could not get it right. Humans evolved to be upright on two feet. The human body was not designed to remain in one position for prolonged periods or to sit for lengths of time. However, modern life often dictates that this is the way we do spend a lot of our time. We work at our desks, we commute long distances, we relax on the sofa. No…

Positive Points: The New Normal Over the past few months, we all seem to have developed a new vocabulary. Phrases such as 'social distancing’, ‘shielding’ and ‘support bubble’ which would once have been received with uncertainty are now part of our everyday language. However, this is only one of the effects of the COVID-19 crisis. As for many businesses the imposed lockdown has had a direct effect on Positive Positioning. The reality of the  aforementioned  phrases has meant we haven’t been able to maintain our usual level of interaction with our client group, most of whom are classed as vulnerable. We work with a significant number of clients in the hydrotherapy pool. Unfortunately, this has not been open for many weeks, so we haven’t been able to offer this support.…

Positive Positioning is looking at new ways of supporting the people we usually work with as we recognise that our client group are particularly vulnerable. We acknowledge that face to face treatment sessions are not appropriate for the foreseeable future but feel it is important to maintain contact with our clients and offer support as best we can. We will be open for telephone consultations and chats to make sure people have some social contact. We can even use technology such as Skype, Facetime or WhatsApp to have video calls. We know this will not work for everyone and does not replace hands on treatment, but we must follow the advice and keep our distance and not expose vulnerable people to the virus. I will be conducting my first video…

What is all the fuss about manual handling training? We carry things every day in normal life so why do we need training to do tasks at work? Unfortunately, people get hurt more often than you may think. The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) statistics show that in the UK in 2017 – 186.6 million working days were lost due to musculoskeletal injuries. Many of these were as a result of poor manual handling. Poor manual handling also accounts for the largest number of injuries and lost days of work in the health and social care sectors. The Health and Safety at Work Act places a duty of care on employers to ensure, “so far as reasonably practicable, the health safety and welfare of people at work”. Employers must, therefore,…