MACA resources ‘a source of truth’ for Cerebral Palsy Alliance
A trusted source
MACA’s resources and training are a trusted 'source of truth' for the Cerebral Palsy Alliance (CPA) – supporting clinicians in their assessing and prescribing role, as well as informing a comprehensive review of the organisation’s transport safety guidelines and resources.
CPA is a global centre of expertise for cerebral palsy research, advocacy, intervention and assistive technology innovation – providing assistive technology services to children and families across New South Wales and the Australian Capital Territory.
Safe transport in the spotlight
Transport is considered a high-risk area of practice and a key focus for CPA. Around 60 per cent of CPA’s seventy occupational therapists have already enrolled in MACA’s training course, Transporting Children with Disabilities and Medical Conditions, since it launched in mid-2022.
“The feedback from clinicians is that it is an incredibly beneficial course,” said Rachelle Baldock, Clinical Educator Occupational Therapy at CPA.
“With heightened awareness within the team about the importance of safe transport, the team has become more proactive in asking families about their children’s car transport needs.”
It has been an amazing addition to our knowledge and understanding and is a valuable source of truth for staff. We have great confidence in the information and are constantly referring staff to MACA’s resources.
Informing new guidelines
CPA began reviewing its transport safety guidelines in late 2023, with updated guidelines and supporting education resources to be launched in the second quarter of 2024.
MACA’s information and resources have 'completely informed' this review, according to CPA.
“As a large organisation, we had to look at what we currently have in terms of assessment and risk assessment, and determine what we’re going to use from MACA’s resources and what we’re going to keep using,” said Jane Berry, CPA Consultant Occupational Therapist.
“It’s looking at both and thinking ‘what’s going to work best for our staff’.”
The MACA Hub
The MACA Hub is a subscriber portal available to MACA-trained allied health professionals – and its resources have been invaluable for CPA clinicians.
The Hub contains the MACA Guide, Product Guides, template letters, access to professional development opportunities and public listing on a ‘find a MACA-trained professional’ Lookup map.
“In a supervisory context, I’ve used the Hub a lot and referred staff to it to help with their clinical reasoning around transport situations,” Jane said.
The Hub’s Product Guides contain essential information about each special purpose car seat on MACA’s National Product Register to assist with prescribing and funding applications – and have been particularly useful for CPA.
“A recent scenario was the prescription of a Carrot Car Seat. To be able to provide information for the NDIS application and then also provide education and support to the family – that Product Guide was critical,” Jane said.
It is information we could hand-on-heart say is best practice.
