About Postural Care Australia

How did Postural Care Australia come about?

In Western Australia, we have been fortunate to be able to provide high-quality and high-value postural care training since 2004. This training was developed by Liz Goldsmith, John Goldsmith, and Sarah Clayton. Bas Jansen (PCA) has been collaborating with them, visiting the UK several times to learn from and contribute to the ongoing development of the training. Denise Luscombe (PCA) attended the first training in Perth in 1999 and has been interested in the preventative aspect with young children since that time. Denise visited ‘Simple Stuff Works’ (SSW) in 2018 to observe the manufacturing and meet all the amazing staff working there.

Inspired by the visits and passionate about bringing the knowledge to a wider audience, in 2020, we started Postural Care Australia. We can now bring this exceptional and eye-opening training to the rest of Australia and the Asia-Pacific region. We are proud to provide the 2-day ‘Postural Care Course’ and 2-day ‘Body Shape Measuring Course’ under license from SSW. This training teaches the biomechanics of how the body distorts and how it can be protected, by a simple, humane, comfortable, safe, and proactive common-sense family / person-centred approach.  

About Us

Bas Jansen
Consultant Physiotherapist - Seating specialist - Postural Care Tutor/Manager (UK)

Bas is a Physiotherapist with a special interest in 24-hour postural care, with over 20 years of experience providing postural care including complex seating for people with severe mobility impairments, both adults and children. He is a strong advocate for family/ person-centred practice and building the capacity of the first circle of support in the area of postural care (paid and unpaid carers).

Bas has presented internationally and nationally and regularly provides postural care courses for families, carers, and therapists, teaches therapists how to measure body shape objectively with the Goldsmith Indices of Body Symmetry (GIoBS), and additionally, regularly runs seating workshops for therapists in Western Australia.

Bas is an associate supervisor at two Ph.D. projects, one with Edith Cowan University (ECU) relating to seating and one with Curtin University and Telethon Kids Institute related to supported lying.

Denise Luscombe
Paediatric Physiotherapist - Postural Care Tutor (UK) - Early Childhood Intervention Consultant

Denise is a Paediatric Physiotherapist who has worked in the field of paediatrics, disability, and early childhood intervention (ECI) for 30+ years (from neonatal intensive care to school age), with the majority of time spent with children under 7 years of age. She is passionate about family-centred practice and implementing contemporary early childhood intervention.  She is an active member of the Australian Physiotherapy Association Paediatric and Disability Groups, is the Chair of PRECI (Professionals and Researchers in ECI) and is the immediate Past-President of Reimagine Australia (formerly Early Childhood Intervention Australia).

Denise is an accredited Postural Care Trainer (UK), Routines-Based Interviewing Trainer (US), Early Intervention Fidelity Coach (US) as well as a certified trainer of the NSMDA (Aus).

Denise has presented nationally and internationally on Postural Care and evidence-informed practices in Early Childhood Intervention at Conferences and workshops, and provided support to interstate and overseas professionals on implementation. She has worked with professionals and carers (trained and untrained) to implement postural care for children with physical disabilities in Australia, as well as presenting the first Postural Care Course in St Petersburg Russia in 2017.

Dense is currently completing a doctorate on ‘The interface between ECI and discipline-specific practice’, she has co-authored a chapter in ‘Early Childhood Intervention – Working with families of young children with special needs’ (2017) Editors:  Carl Dunst and Hanan Sukkar and co-authored an International Guide: ‘Are you worried about your child?’ to support families of children with complex needs with Peter Limbrick and others.