Care & connection · PRACTICAL LEARNING
Moving & Handling: Planning Safer Everyday Support
Understand walking aids, reliance on furniture and day or night routes, then plan everyday movement support around the person's abilities and the right individual guidance.
Who is this for?
Adults, including relatives, friends, neighbours and paid helpers who may be asked to support an older person’s everyday movement or help prepare their home and transport journey.
£7.99 · one learner · one-time payment
They reach for the furniture—or use a stick that has seen better days. What should you check?
Wanting to help does not settle which support suits the person. Understand the existing aid and surroundings, recognise when help needs assessment, and prepare useful questions before buying equipment or attempting physical assistance.
Useful things you can try
- Notice how the existing aid, route and task fit together.
- Understand the limits of furniture as support and check visible aid wear.
- Agree the next practical step and get individual advice where needed.
Tools to take away: Movement and sensory-support check · Existing-aid observation prompts · Fall-help and transport plan.
What you can put into practice
- Start with the person's goal, consent, current abilities and any change before agreeing to physical assistance.
- Check an existing walking aid for visible wear and prepare useful questions about fitting, use and maintenance without improvising an aid or testing a risky task.
- Understand what reliance on furniture may reveal and plan clearer routes around lighting, vision, hearing and familiar layout.
- Agree practical support, seating and bed-comfort questions, fall-help contacts and transport arrangements that nearby helpers and relatives farther away can actually provide.
How the course helps
An older person may use a stick, reach for furniture or need a clearer route to the toilet. Before touching or lifting, understand their goal, current abilities and what the surroundings allow. Six lessons, outlined below in four themes, explore visible walking-aid wear, familiar layout, vision and hearing, seating, bed comfort, falls and transport, with three original diagrams. Prepare precise questions about suitable equipment and individual help, then agree a plan the household can provide. This course does not teach improvised lifting or replace assessment and hands-on instruction.
Make it work in your setting
Use the planning ideas to recognise limits and seek suitable help; they are not instructions for unassessed lifting. How to use our examples →
A situation you may recognise
- The usual helper is absent and the task needs physical assistance: recognise the limit and seek a suitable plan.
- Prepare a night-time route without treating furniture or household materials as assessed transfer equipment.
Why this can be useful to give
Wanting to help does not settle which support suits the person. Understand the existing aid and surroundings, recognise when help needs assessment, and prepare useful questions before buying equipment or attempting physical assistance. A useful gift appreciates the effort already being made and offers ideas the learner can adapt with the older person.
What you’ll explore
01 · Plan before touching
Identify the person’s goal, abilities and current condition. Agree preparation and recognise when physical help needs individual assessment.
02 · Prepare routes and independent movement
Understand reliance on furniture, existing walking-aid checks, familiar layouts, sensory needs and night-time routes; consider independent standing with the original diagrams.
03 · Bed comfort, falls and transport
Prepare bed and sitting comfort, repositioning questions, a fall-help route and ordinary clinic transport without improvised lifting.
04 · Make a household plan
Recognise risky shortcuts and missing resources, then agree practical help nearby or from farther away. Practise the choices using completed examples and private tools.
Tools you can use afterwards
Task-and-ability sheet; Movement and sensory-support check; Existing walking-aid observation prompts; Day/night route checklist; Independent-chair observation sheet; Bed and sitting review; Fall-help and transport plan; Household support agreement. You can begin by thinking or talking privately. Write accurate instructions and agreements others need to follow; personal notes do not need submitting.
General family-support education, not practical moving-and-handling certification, physiotherapy or first-aid training. Individual physical assistance and equipment use require appropriate assessment and hands-on instruction.