6. Summary

This resource is part of a collection of resources which cover responsibilities for safe manual handling, legislation, effects on health and making safe decisions.

It is important to undertake a risk assessment with considerations to the task, individual, load (object or patient), working environment (and equipment used for handling loads) in order to help to reduce the risks to people and organisations.

Specifically, there are four important areas to consider (following the TILE model):

• Focusing on the task at hand
• Staying fit and healthy to prevent injury
• Safe handling of loads
• Environmental factors