Make Your Home More User Friendly

If you are finding it increasingly difficult to get up your stairs

, you might want to think about investing in a stairlift. But with so many options, prices and styles, it can be an exceptionally confusing marketplace and given that stairlifts hardly come cheap, you want to know that youre getting a piece of equipment that will last, offer excellent quality and wont cost the earth. So what exactly are your options? The first step is to have a proper assessment of your needs. Although you might think that a stairlift is straightforward, there are a number of options that will help with specific mobility issues. To get an objective and independent view of your needs, ask your doctor to refer you to an occupational therapist who will be able to spend some time with you assessing how you get around your home and the best way to improve your experience.

Some people find it difficult to get up once they have sat down, in which case there are a number of chair lifts that will actually help you to move from a sitting to standing position. Equally, you might find it difficult to turn yourself in the right position to use a stairlift, in which case there are models with swivelling seats and moving rails that allow you easy ingress and egress. Perhaps more importantly however, an occupational therapist or similar adviser will be able to get a good idea of areas that you might need to help with in the future. Activities that are perfectly manageable now might not be so easy in the coming years, in which case you dont want to have to buy another stairlift again.

Other considerations include thinking about whether you might want to use a mobility scooter or electric wheelchair in the future. If that is the case, then it might be more appropriate to have a through-floor lift installed so that you can continue to use this on the upper floors. For those of you who live with another person, you should also take account of their needs both now and in the future. Partners who are perfectly able to handle the stairs now, might be in a different position in the future, so again, its worth bearing in mind how their needs will affect the type of installation you want. Future-proofing is the name of the game where such a comparatively expensive piece of equipment is concerned, so make sure you thoroughly research the company youre dealing with.

by: Kathryn Pattison

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