POSTER PRESENTATION Open Access The implementation of the paediatric footwear program at community health level Alicia James * , Cylie Williams, Christine Pappon From Australasian Podiatry Council Conference 2011 Melbourne, Australia. 26-29 April 2011 Background Children spend around 30 hours a week in their school shoes - that ’ s in excess of 15,000 hours during their school years. Correctly fitted shoes help reduce the risk of injury, improve comfort and assist in gross motor development and participation. Recent research indi- cates that foot deformities in children who wear incor- rectly fitting footwear are increased, following the closure of a local shoe store and parents relating to podiatry staff of the financial difficulties of providing appropriate footwear, the podiatrist developed a quality project. The aim of the project was to provide cost effective and safe footwear for children that attend the services of Greater Dandenong and Cardinia Casey Community Health. Methods 200 local school children were assessed and 80 were determined to be wearing inappropriate fitting footwear. Bata footwear based in Mornington was approached and agreed to support the footwear program in the provision of footwear at a reduced cost for community health clients. Results/conclusions The paediatric footwear program in the first 4 months has fitted over 120 children, with a follow-up qualitative survey to be conducted over the following months. Par- ents have welcomed this service and have regularly reported learning more about correctly fitting shoes and this service provision a welcome financial relief during hardship. Published: 20 May 2011 doi:10.1186/1757-1146-4-S1-P29 Cite this article as: James et al.: The implementation of the paediatric footwear program at community health level. Journal of Foot and Ankle Research 2011 4(Suppl 1):P29. Submit your next manuscript to BioMed Central and take full advantage of: • Convenient online submission • Thorough peer review • No space constraints or color ﬁgure charges • Immediate publication on acceptance • Inclusion in PubMed, CAS, Scopus and Google Scholar • Research which is freely available for redistribution Submit your manuscript at www.biomedcentral.com/submit Southern Health Community Services, Australia James et al. Journal of Foot and Ankle Research 2011, 4(Suppl 1):P29 http://www.jfootankleres.com/content/4/S1/P29 JOURNAL OF FOOT AND ANKLE RESEARCH © 2011 James et al; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

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Page 1: The implementation of the paediatric footwear program at community health level

POSTER PRESENTATION Open Access

The implementation of the paediatric footwearprogram at community health levelAlicia James*, Cylie Williams, Christine Pappon

From Australasian Podiatry Council Conference 2011Melbourne, Australia. 26-29 April 2011

BackgroundChildren spend around 30 hours a week in their schoolshoes - that’s in excess of 15,000 hours during theirschool years. Correctly fitted shoes help reduce the riskof injury, improve comfort and assist in gross motordevelopment and participation. Recent research indi-cates that foot deformities in children who wear incor-rectly fitting footwear are increased, following theclosure of a local shoe store and parents relating topodiatry staff of the financial difficulties of providingappropriate footwear, the podiatrist developed a qualityproject. The aim of the project was to provide costeffective and safe footwear for children that attend theservices of Greater Dandenong and Cardinia CaseyCommunity Health.

Methods200 local school children were assessed and 80 weredetermined to be wearing inappropriate fitting footwear.Bata footwear based in Mornington was approached andagreed to support the footwear program in the provisionof footwear at a reduced cost for community healthclients.

Results/conclusionsThe paediatric footwear program in the first 4 monthshas fitted over 120 children, with a follow-up qualitativesurvey to be conducted over the following months. Par-ents have welcomed this service and have regularlyreported learning more about correctly fitting shoes andthis service provision a welcome financial relief duringhardship.

Published: 20 May 2011

doi:10.1186/1757-1146-4-S1-P29Cite this article as: James et al.: The implementation of the paediatricfootwear program at community health level. Journal of Foot and AnkleResearch 2011 4(Suppl 1):P29.

Submit your next manuscript to BioMed Centraland take full advantage of:

• Convenient online submission

• Thorough peer review

• No space constraints or color figure charges

• Immediate publication on acceptance

• Inclusion in PubMed, CAS, Scopus and Google Scholar

• Research which is freely available for redistribution

Submit your manuscript at www.biomedcentral.com/submitSouthern Health Community Services, Australia

James et al. Journal of Foot and Ankle Research 2011, 4(Suppl 1):P29http://www.jfootankleres.com/content/4/S1/P29

JOURNAL OF FOOTAND ANKLE RESEARCH

© 2011 James et al; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative CommonsAttribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction inany medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0