Legal action: protect yourself

052 Exercise Professionals: Barriers and Facilitators to Working With Stroke Survivors

“…Focus group findings with EPs determined that fear of liability was a major obstacle to working with people with disability (Rimmer et al, 2004). Working with vulnerable clients such as SSs may bring greater legal and ethical responsibilities due to cognitive or communication impairments affecting consent and decision making capacity (Mathes, 2015). Results from this current study illustrated 26% of EPs agreed, 26% disagreed and 26% were unsure if fear of liability was a barrier.…”

“…Professional registration and insurance may contribute to EPs in this study being less fearful of liability along with 68.4% of EPs reporting good or very good skills in relation to client safety. To minimise the risk of liability, health professionals have been encouraged to work within their scope of practice based on their education and experience (Mathes, 2015). EPs scope of practice in relation to working with SSs is unclear along with what education and experience they require to do so (REPs Ireland, 2015).…”