Purpose: The purpose of this Doctoral Capstone Experience (DCE) project was to develop effective and inclusive safe transfer training for support staff at Garden Center Services (GCS), propose a plan to increase accessibility of the facility, and adjust wheelchairs and walkers to improve client positioning.
Need: Through the use of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) Checklist for Existing Facilities, many areas of inaccessibility in the buildings were identified. The majority of the
consumers' walkers were either too low or high, leading to improper ergonomics while using their walkers. The direct support staff (DSP) and day program director also identified a need to revamp the education on transfer training to staff.
Implementation: From the accessibility assessment, a proposal plan was created including rankings of priority (low, medium, and high priority), cost, limitations due to inaccessibility, and recommendation of the changes needed. A new transfer training program was developed to be included within DSP training, including videos, hands-on practice, pre-/post-tests, competency forms, and handouts. Finally, each walker was adapted to the appropriate height for all individuals, and staff were trained in proper positioning for walkers and wheelchairs.
Discontinuation: All training materials were provided to GCS for future use. The recommended accessibility changes will be completed in phases. The competency of staff for transferring consumers improved, and positioning and satisfaction from the consumers during functional mobility also increased.

Creator

• Fiedler, Jordan

Contributors

• Fogo, Jennifer

Publisher

• University of Indianapolis

Language

• en

Identifier

• Fiedler.J.OTD.2019.pdf

Keyword

• Occupational Therapy

Date created

• 2019-04

Resource type

• Dissertation

Source

• S20

Rights statement

• http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/