OUR MISSION: "To improve the safety of caregivers and their patients by advancing the science and practice of safe patient handling." The organizers came together with the idea that an available certification for persons with education, experience and passion for the field would encourage the acknowledgement of safe patient handling as a true profession, thereby promoting the science and practice that will prevent our colleagues from serious and debilitating injury. A membership association was thought to provide additional opportunity for sharing, working together and furthering the cause. ASPHP provides the opportunity to earn a certification in the practice of safe patient handling. Our certification is two-tiered and our standards, regardless of level, are appropriate to today's health care environments, needs and expectations. ASPHP is proud to be the standard-bearer for the safe patient handling profession. Our certification identifies a caring practitioner who has the knowledge and practical skills required of one who can competently assume a participatory or leadership role in their health care organization's effort to establish and maintain a successful safe patient handling and movement program.