Power Wheelchairs: Optimising Paediatric and Adult Outcomes

Join us for two workshops on Optimising Paediatric Power Mobility Outcomes and How Drive & Seating Shape Adult Function.

Morning Session: 9:00 am to 11:30 am

Driven to Participate: Optimising Paediatric Power Mobility Outcomes

Children’s mobility needs are dynamic, complex, and central to their development. This workshop focuses on how paediatric power wheelchair drive configurations and seating positions impact access, postural support, growth potential, and navigation across everyday environments.

Through a clinical reasoning lens, we will explore how to balance access, safety, developmental needs, and long-term outcomes when selecting and configuring a paediatric power base. Therapists will leave with practical, evidence-informed strategies to support children in achieving meaningful mobility – and meaningful moments – in their daily lives.

Key Learning Areas:
By attending this workshop, participants will:

• Describe and compare pediatric power wheelchair drive options and their implication for access, growth, postural support and everyday environments.
• Explore how drive configuration and seating position work together to support participation in play, learning and family routines.
• Apply clinical reasoning to balancing access, safety, developmental needs and longer-term outcomes when selecting configurations.

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Afternoon Session: 12:30 pm to 2:30 pm

Beyond the Base: How Drive & Seating Shape Adult Function

This session focuses on adult power wheelchair prescription, examining how drive configuration and seating position work together to influence access, manoeuvrability, stability, and functional performance across home, work, and community environments.

Using a clinical reasoning approach, we will explore how to align drive base selection with seating and positioning to optimise transfers, functional reach, endurance, pressure management, and confident community mobility.

Through practical examples and outcome-focused discussion, therapists will gain clear strategies to link configuration choices with measurable functional outcomes and participation goals, supporting greater independence and quality of life for adult clients.

Key Learning Areas:
By attending this workshop, participants will:

• Explore how drive configurations affect access, manoeuvrability and seating effectiveness across the adult functional environmental context
• Integrate drive selection with seating and positioning decisions to optimise functional outcomes such as transfers, reach, endurance and community mobility
• Link configuration choices to measurable functional outcomes and participation goals, demonstrating applied clinical decision making.

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Location: Astris PME Wollongong, 218 Berkeley Rd, Unanderra NSW 2526
Date & Time: Thursday, 12th March 2026 | 9:00 am – 2:30 pm
Who Should Attend: Prescribing Therapists
Ticket Selection: Select Full Day if attending both sessions, or choose Morning Only or Afternoon Only if attending a single session.

Certificates and CPD credits will be awarded to participants who attend the session in full. Morning tea and lunch will be provided.

SPECIAL GUEST PRESENTER:

The workshops will be led by Tracee-lee Maginnity, Clinical Education Specialist at Permobil.

Tracee-lee Maginnity joined Permobil Australia in July 2019 as a Clinical Education Specialist. Originally from New Zealand, she graduated fromthe Auckland University of Technology in 2003 with a Bachelor of Health Science (Occupational Therapy).

Tracee-lee has worked extensively in seating and mobility across a range of roles, including assessment, prescription, clinical consulting, and education. After gaining experience as both an assessor and prescriber, her clinical practice has encompassed disability and injury-related prescribing.

In 2011, Tracee-lee moved to Australia to take on the role of Senior Occupational Therapist at a non-government organisation providing custom moulded seating services. During this time, she identified that clients with complex postural asymmetries were not routinely receiving MAT evaluations. In response, she began introducing MAT training within the service—an area she remains deeply passionate about today.

She continued to work in clinical consulting and education roles before joining Permobil. Tracee-lee is passionate about maximising functional outcomes for end users and strongly advocates for high-quality education within the assistive technology industry.

Tracee-lee has presented at conferences, expos, rehabilitation centres, hospitals, and universities both locally and internationally. She has also contributed to government initiatives through participation in working groups, independently and in collaboration with local organisations. In addition, she has mentored many therapists with an interest in assistive technology and was involved in the pilot competency program that is now a requirement for prescribing therapists in New Zealand.

Her experience includes working with individuals with complex postural needs to achieve customised, client-focused outcomes and adopting a holistic approach to ensure optimal user outcomes.