What is 24-Hour Postural Care?

24-Hour Postural Care is both a therapeutic and a preventative approach which considers body positions over a 24-hour period in order to maximize function and decrease body distortion in people with movement disorders.

24-Hour Postural Care can:

  • Help to mitigate the negative impact of gravity on body shape
  • Decrease pain
  • Improve sleep
  • Improve sitting posture and daytime function
  • Increase ease of physical care
  • Improve digestion, respiration, and toileting

What is the 24-Hour Postural Care Project?

Our project provides consultation and training to providers across Vermont who are working with children and young adults with severe movement disorders.  

We provide consultation on:

  • Analyzing posture across a 24-hour period
  • Assessing body symmetry and other outcomes measures such as pain levels and quality and quantity of sleep
  •  Trialing, ordering, fitting a sleep system, if needed
  •  Assessing positioning in other equipment throughout the day
  • Identifying the positioning goals for each activity within a 24-hour period

How does the project work?

  • We identify those in need of 24-Hour Postural Care by discussions with and training of local providers.  Our process starts with a routines-based intake meeting to better define the needs of the individual team and family.
  • We support teams to learn to measure body symmetry and other outcome measures such as pain levels and quality and quantity of sleep through modeling, coaching and training.
  • We provide consultation to teams to trial sleep systems and other positioning equipment.
  • We train teams and families in use of new equipment.
  • We monitor the team and family’s implementation of new equipment and support teams to re-measure on a regular basis to measure progress.