Health and Mobility Store - Main index page
Most healthy people take full mobility and the everyday tasks that they overcome with ease for granted. For the majority of the population, only tasks that require physical effort, strength or a skill are considered hard or challenging, however things can change due to aging, illness, weight gain or an accident. When this happens, even the most mundane of activities can become problematic or require asistance.
There is of course an increasingly large populous in western societies who do have some form of mobility or dexterity impediment and, when this is the case, many of their day to day chores can become very challenging.
These activities and tasks may appear overly demanding to a healthy person, but for someone who has difficulty moving, carrying, or gripping they can become almost insurmountable obstacles.
Not surprisingly, being unable to stay mobile, particularly in the home, but also outdoors, is one of the more obvious signs of lost mobility. But being independent in other areas like those of personal hygiene and self dressing and undressing carry a sense of personal control and confidence. This independence, and an element of dignity, can be lost or at least reduced when carers or family are needed to help with personal chores like washing, eating and dressing.
Solutions that help to retain or regain personal independence
There are many different mobility aids and household task aids that can make independent living practical for more people and for longer periods of their lives.
General mobility can be regained through the use of aids like wheelchairs, power chairs, mobility scooters and walkers. These aids all facilitate getting around they help anyone who cannot walk or who has walking difficulties.
Household aids like bath lifts, lifting toilet seats and grab rails can make the bathroom a more accessible environment, and stairlifts can keep a two storey home practical for those with walking difficulties. Aids like these make it possible for someone who is mobility challenged to stay in their own home without the need for a carer or relocation to a single storey purpose built accommodation unit.
This still leaves the problems of putting on clothes, food preparation and eating, but still more aids and gadgets can help with these tasks. A number of clever gadgets are available to help in the kitchen and at the table and these range from devices that remove tin lids, bottle caps and twist caps, to easy grip cutlery and special plates.
There are a number of smart, effective and easy to use aids that can make getting dressed or undressed a less challenging task for someone who finds bending, stretching and holding small objects (like a zip pull) difficult. These aids range from pocket sized tools that can put a button into and out of a button hole, to zip pullers and sock pulling aids. A number of these aids are multi purpose and this means that they can carry out more than one task, e.g. a zip puller combined with a button fastener. Other devices are more particular and can only be used for a certain item of clothing, e.g. a stocking dressing aid.
Comfort in the home is another important area where modified variations of standard furnishings can make life easier for those who find it hard to sit down and stand up, or who find sleeping troublesome.
There are a number of chairs that cover everything from high backed orthopedic style chairs to hydraulic lift and tilt chairs. These chairs make the difficult tasks of getting into or out of them a simple process by utilising motorised control to make the seat and backrest lift up and tilt forwards. This means that the bending and lifting elements of sitting down and standing up are performed by the chair.
Motorised beds and beds with special memory foam mattresses can make sleeping easier for those who find getting comfortable in bed a problem. Electric beds or power beds offer a near limitless number of sleeping positions by enabling the upper and lower sections of the bed to be adjusted for tilt by remote control. This means that they can also be set with the backrest section in a sitting position for reading or watching TV.
Mattresses that use visco elastic memory foam or latex rubber can also offer superior support to the back and limbs and this can help in achieving a better night’s sleep.
Naturally reduced mobility is distressing, but it can also change routine and it is this change in routine that causes much of the anxiety and worry that results in this distress. By using the many aids and devices that are available to regain or extend mobility, a high degree of normality can be returned to many people who lose some mobility through age, injury, illness or weight gain.