Watch on your mobile device >>
“The goal of assistive technology is to provide the most appropriate technology for a particular person, with minimal disruption to a user’s accustomed and preferred ways of doing things, ultimately resulting in an enhanced quality of life” 1 In order to do that, a person needs to identify not only what they are trying to accomplish, but also their abilities, the abilities of any care givers, features of the physical environment, and funding source requirements and then match these things to the physical and technical requirements of the products they select as well as to the price and availability of the product. Without a proper match, the best product in the world could very well be useless.
One of the greatest equipment misconceptions I run into relates to transfer equipment. In our current medical reimbursement climate, most transfer equipment that is funded through medical funding sources meets only the most basic of transfer needs. The ability to function independently for instance may not always be defined as medically necessary. The prevalence of very basic equipment leads some medical professionals and lay people to assume that there is really one type of lift equipment. Even those who have learned about alternatives such as ceiling based lift equipment may not realize that there is such a variety of motor, switch, and sling/body support options available.
I was asked just this week to step in and help an individual correct a problem arising from his prescribing source thinking that all ceiling based lifts were similar. He’d been working on independence with a particular system in rehab. Unfortunately his prescription simply indicated a ceiling lift. He was fortunate enough to qualify for a funding source. The funding source representative didn’t understand that one size didn’t fit all. The end result was that he got a lift but it was provided by a company that didn’t evaluate him personally and put in a lift that required a caregiver to operate and for him to sit on a sling. Since he hadn’t been educated that there was more than the system he’d trained on available, he didn’t realize he couldn’t use what was being installed until he say the device hanging there. He couldn’t operate the motor by himself and he couldn’t use the sling provided as it impacted a pressure sore and he couldn’t put it on independently without sitting on it all day long. This was a situation in which everyone involved intended something good, but it didn’t work out well, because no one matched the technology to his needs.
It really wasn’t hard to help him figure out what would work. We just had to list out what he wanted to do, list his abilities, and understand enough about ceiling lifts to know which products matched the items on the list. Once of the reasons, I love being a SureHands Lift and Care Dealer is the ability to actually “prescribe” the right combination of motor and sling/body support. Just to make sure, we tried a demonstration model so that the individual could understand and feel for himself what the equipment would do.
Selection of the right technology can enhance a person’s quality of life whether we are talking about something fairly complex like a lift system or something simple like a toilet riser. Take the time to make a good match and you will like the result.
1 MJ Scherer: Outcomes of assistive technology use on quality of life, Disability Rehabilitation 18 (9) 1996
