Australian Association for the Manual Handling of People

Caz Hales is a registered nurse who leads research in obesity care within health systems. With over two decades of clinical and academic experience, including extensive work in intensive care, she specialises in developing accessible, size-inclusive healthcare environments. Her research has transformed how healthcare services approach bariatric patient care, with particular focus on safe patient handling, mobility, and environmental design.

Tracey is an engaging and approachable advocate who brings the unique perspective of lived experience to every event. Through her consultancy, Fat Lot She Knows, she delivers training, seminars, and product evaluations that focus on dignity, equality, and person-centred care for people of size. Known for her honesty and warmth, Tracey helps professionals understand the real impact of their work, sparking both reflection and practical change.

With a diverse background in emergency care, hospice and home health, and healthcare administration. She has developed education for bedside clinicians and industry experts on topics such as pressure injuries and therapeutic surfaces, mobility, and safe patient handling. Amber has delivered key presentations, including Understanding the Bariatric Market and Barriers to Bariatric Care, highlighting challenges in bariatric patient care. Dedicated to bridge the gap between frontline staff and industry leaders, Amber advocates for solutions that address the challenges bedside clinicians face in delivering the most therapeutic and safe care. She is committed to raising awareness of the barriers that impact patient care, ensuring that industry advances align with the needs of healthcare professionals to improve patient outcomes.

Susan qualified as a Physiotherapist in the UK last century before moving to Australia in 1994 and has been involved in People Handling since 1997.
Based in Adelaide and works across a range of industries including Hospitals, Aged and Community Care, Disability and with Councils. Susan's passion is making tasks more efficient through a Risk management approach. Susan has also been one of the drivers, and presenters, of a People Handling Across the LIfespan webinar series for the APA and presented at the APA Conference.

With 18 years of experience spanning acute and aged care settings. She is widely regarded as a subject matter expert in patient manual handling, with over 13 years dedicated to advancing safety, training, and best practices within healthcare environments. In her current role as Work Health and Safety Program Consultant for Patient Manual Handling at St Vincent's Public Hospital Melbourne, Leslea leads hospital-wide initiatives aimed at injury prevention and the promotion of safer manual handling practises.

She has a keen interest in models of care which improve patient outcomes through participation in physical activity and exercise training programs. Julie is the recipient of a Metro North Clinician Research Fellowship. Her current research is focused on addressing ward-based and organisational barriers which impact upon inpatient mobility in medical inpatients. Her vision is to create "active hospitals", whereby systems support a safe environment for staff and patients, and a positive physical activity culture, which seeks to reduce functional decline and improve clinical outcomes.

Holds qualifications in Physiotherapy and Psychology with over 25 years of experience spanning health and safety, occupational rehabilitation, injury prevention, and injury management across various sectors including, manufacturing, transport and healthcare. With 12 years of dedicated experience in aged care, Heather has been instrumental in developing master-level training programs focused on Safe Resident Handling, which have been successful in reducing both staff and resident incidents and injuries. Her work emphasizes empowering staff through education to deliver safe, resident-centered care, particularly for individuals with complex needs such as dementia, bariatric conditions, Huntington's disease, stroke, and Parkinson's. Heather's focus is to prevent injuries and illnesses through early intervention strategies and is an advocate for preparing staff to be "industrial athletes" so they are "match ready" for the job at hand

Andy uses his passion & creativity to design safe patient handling products & programs that help both patients & caregivers remain safe. Andy speaks at numerous regional & national conferences on topics ranging from making a business case for a safe patient handling programs to creating & sustaining success in safe patient handling. He leads teams using behavioural based safety, right-just culture, system theory, improvisational comedy & simple strategies to infuse fun & passion into change initiatives.

She worked as a lecturer in occupational therapy for four years at the National University of Ireland, Galway, and she has published 10 articles in peer-reviewed academic journals.
A finalist for the Safe Work NSW Leadership Award in Work Health and Safety 2018.
She is the author of the Amazon #1 bestselling book The Manual Handling Revolution and SmartCare in 2021 and has created the SmartCare Passport, an on-demand manual handling plan creator, that won an award for productivity in care in 2022.

With over 20 years of experience, Zoe has worked across both public and private health settings in Australia and England. Her career has spanned a wide range of clinical environments, providing a valuable foundation for her practical and adaptable approach to care. She has a particular interest in improving workplace systems and processes to support more efficient practices, enhance team collaboration and ultimately improve the experience for both staff and patients. Zoe is committed to fostering positive change within healthcare by blending hands-on clinical insight with a thoughtful focus on sustainable service improvement.

Dr Dennis has consulted extensively on ergonomic issues to a wide variety of industrial sectors both within Australia and internationally for over 20 years. Combining a research Doctorate on the biomechanics of musculoskeletal injury with a tertiary background in engineering and a First-Class Honours degree in Health Science, Gary has the ideal combination of an in-depth understanding of biological tissues and engineering mechanics to effectively address injury and performance issues in occupational environments. With an academic career at various universities where he was a co-creator of PErforM, Gary now focuses most of his time as the Managing Director of both Ergo Solutions, an injury risk assessment and ergonomic solutions company, and Ergo Enterprises that provides injury risk management solutions through its Participative Ergonomics risk management system Ergo Analyst.

Jacinta Maurin brings to Seating Matters 25+ year's experience in complex seating and postural care. Jacinta has a background in physiotherapy, and she has extensive experience in finding solutions to improve comfort, pressure care and participation. Jacinta is a regular presenter across Asia Pacific, including ATSA expos and Oceania Seating Symposium, in the areas of 24-hour postural care and complex seating solutions.

Mark is a Physiotherapist who has been working in Health and Safety for the Townsville HHS for 17 years where his focus has been the effective management of hazardous manual tasks. Over that time, he has both observed the changing nature of work, the associated risks and has contributed to the ways in which the organisation has evolved its approach to identifying the associated hazards and how they are managed. The challenges faced by health workers continue to morph, as they always have, but Mark feels health services are now better positioned to meet and safely manage the challenge of keeping staff safe

With a strong clinical background from her work in South African public hospitals and experience supporting NDIS participants in Australia. Chanelle is passionate about supporting clinical decision-making, providing practical guidance that enhances outcomes for clients and makes life easier for those involved in their care.
Chanelle will present "Modernizing Sling Selection using AI and a Game-changing App", showcasing how technology can streamline the prescription process and automate clinical justification, saving time for prescribing clinicians

Executive member of AAMHP since 2004. Pippa is an experienced OH & S Risk management consultant with an extensive background in nursing as well as Tertiary qualification in Health Science & OH&S.
She has worked in many industries since forming her own consultancy 25 years ago, from Aviation to entertainment but always gravitates back to her grounding industry of Health Care.
Pippa is best known as the founder of the Injury prevention program "Back Attack' 27 years ago, which has been implemented into too many to count organizations across Australia and internationally.
In the past 15 years she has been conducting significant research into behavioral strategies associated with the Human factor in manual handling, which has identified some significant findings in relation to organizational wellness, employee fitness and a unique methodology of treating the causative factors not just the symptoms of an age-old problem