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Through the medium of learning, we are committed to making positive changes to the lives of 4.4 million Australians with a disability.
1 billion people around the world live with some form of disability, that’s roughly 15% of the world’s population.
We established a partnership with leading Australian disability service provider, Cerebral Palsy Alliance (CPA), recognising our shared vision to lead the way in digital learning for the disability sector. CPA’s knowledge and expertise in the disability sector, coupled with Kineo’s capacity to transform the learning content into engaging learning content design and delivery is a model for success, with the key objective to make positive changes a reality, both for individual learners and across the organisation.
Working together are striving to address key challenges and requirements from the needs of the sector. This will continue to flow through into 2022 and beyond.
A genuine partnership with a goal to meet a dual vision
December 3rd is International Day of People with Disabilities (IDPwD). Its purpose is to raise awareness of disabilities and focus on how we can support ourselves and others in the most inclusive way, while celebrating diversity in all disabilities. Through our working together this blog is to highlight our genuine aim to measurably make a positive difference to those living with a disability and ensure best practice across the sector. The 2021 theme for IDPwD is ‘Leadership and participation of persons with disabilities toward an inclusive, accessible and sustainable post-COVID-19 world’.
Mealtime assistance course to address knowledge gaps
The first course, “Mealtime assistance” addresses shortfalls in worker knowledge and/or understaffings where mealtime guidelines were not fully being adhered to. · We identified ‘average’ or ‘below average’ practices currently being employed across the sector and aim to lift them by ‘raising the bar’ to CPA’s best practice standards.
Judy Williamson – Training Alliance Senior Manager stated;
“The aim of this course is for learners to develop skills to support people with disability to have enjoyable and safe meals. From the initial stages of development, our goal has been to create a comprehensive, engaging, cost and time effective learning solution to support disability support workers at CPA and across the sector in mealtime assistance”
In developing the course, we drew on the knowledge of multiple subject matter experts including Clinical Consultant Speech Pathologists, our Digital Learning & Development Specialist, this online course enables learners to:
- Recognise the importance of mealtimes
- Recognise signs of swallowing difficulty
- Describe the purpose, function, and importance of mealtime plans
- Follow and implement mealtime plans
- Explain what to do with any inconsistencies or difficult to follow instructions in a mealtime plan
The training also covers strategies that promote personal dignity, safe swallowing, appropriate seating and positioning, and mealtime assistance techniques.
The ‘Mealtime assistance’ elearning has been recognised as gold standard by the learning industry (LearnX Live Awards 2021)·
For many disability support workers, English is not their first language. In developing this course we have considered language, building concepts sequentially, and use of videos and animations to support learners.
The design has significantly reduced the seat time (from in-person training) without skipping any of the vital content.
The learning content design caters for DSPs with various levels of experience and is suitable for both induction learning as well as refresher in mealtime assistance.
An example of learner feedback:
“it is easy to navigate, easy to understand, visually engaging, interactive, and enjoyable.”
Understanding how to prevent pressure injuries
Pressure Injury Prevention is recommended for disability support practitioners and will equip participants with the knowledge and skills to prevent pressure injuries and provide effective support to clients at risk of pressure injuries.
A pressure injury (also known as a bedsore or pressure ulcer) is an area of injured skin. Pressure injuries (PIs) can result in painful prolonged hospital stays, and at their worst, can be fatal.
As well as an obvious emotional and physical cost to vulnerable people suffering from PIs, organisations face a significant financial burden when these occur. The estimated annual treatment cost of PIs across Australia is above $983 million, approximately 1.9% of all public health expenditure (Nguyen K‐H, Chaboyer W, Whitty JA. Pressure injury in Australian public hospitals: a cost‐of‐illness study. Aust Health Rev. 2015;39(3):329‐336.)
Pressure Injury avoidance is an important consideration for any care facility or service, most PIs are considered preventable when correct prevention strategies are implemented. This online course will help disability support practitioners and others understand what pressure injuries are and how they are caused.
The online content also covers:
- Who is at increased risk of pressure injuries?
- Why prevention is so important
- How to prevent pressure injuries in the workplace
- The stages of pressure injury development
- How to recognise, report and effectively respond to pressure injuries
Watch this space, this second course that looks to address a common problem is available from early December. Get on board with #IDPwD and if you’d like to find out more, get in touch, we’re here to help.
