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Wheelchair Van Conversion Styles: Side-Entry Vs. Rear-Entry
There are several wheelchair accessible van conversion styles you’ll want to consider when choosing the right mobility solution for you. One decision you’ll have to make is to choose between a side-entry wheelchair van and a rear-entry wheelchair accessible van.
Side-Entry Vs. Rear-Entry Wheelchair Vans
One of the most important choices you’ll make in selecting a handicap accessible wheelchair van is side entry versus rear entry. Your choice will impact such things as the wheelchair seating positions, your ability to accommodate other passengers, and parking options. Side-entry wheelchair vans represent the majority of the market—over 75% for most personal use vehicles. However, rear-entry wheelchair vans are also gaining in popularity as more products become available. Here is a look at some key points you’ll want to be aware of.
| Style | Side-entry wheelchair minivans | Rear-entry wheelchair minivans |
|---|---|---|
| Advantages |
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| Important options |
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| Limitations |
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| Conversion price | $19,000-$25,000* *Cost of conversion only (vehicle cost is additional). |
$17,000-$22,000* *Cost of conversion only (vehicle cost is additional). |
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Osteoporosis Awareness
General Facts
- Osteoporosis is a disease of the bone that makes a person’s bones weak and more likely to break. Approximately 9 million Americans have osteoporosis and another 43 million have low bone density, placing them at increased risk.
- This means that nearly 60% of adults age 50 and older are at risk of breaking a bone and should be concerned about bone health.
- One in two women and up to one in four men will break a bone in their lifetime due to osteoporosis. For women, the incidence is greater than that of heart attack, stroke and breast cancer combined.
- There is no cure for osteoporosis, but there are steps you can take to prevent, slow or stop its progress. Diet, exercise and a healthy lifestyle are keys to preventing and managing the disease.
- NOF recommends five steps to improve bone health and prevent osteoporosis:
- Get the calcium and vitamin D you need every day.
- Do regular weight-bearing and muscle-strengthening exercises.
- Don’t smoke and don’t drink too much alcohol.
- Talk to your healthcare provider about your chance of getting osteoporosis and ask when you should have a bone density test.
- Take an osteoporosis medication when it’s right for you.
About Osteoporosis
Osteoporosis is a disease of the bone.
- Osteoporosis is often called a “silent disease” because you cannot feel your bones getting weaker.
- You may not even know you have osteoporosis until after you break a bone.
Osteoporosis is serious, even deadly.
- A woman’s risk of hip fracture is equal to her combined risk of breast, uterine and ovarian cancer.
- A man is more likely to break a bone due to osteoporosis than he is to get prostate cancer.
- 24 percent of hip fracture patients age 50 and over die in the year following the fracture.
- Six months after a hip fracture, only 15 percent of patients can walk across a room unaided.
- Every year, of nearly 300,000 hip fracture patients, one-quarter end up in nursing homes and half never regain previous function
Osteoporosis is costly.
- Osteoporosis-related bone breaks cost patients, their families and the healthcare system $19 billion annually.
- By 2025, experts predict that osteoporosis will be responsible for three million fractures resulting in $25.3 billion in costs.
Osteoporosis is preventable.
- About 85-90 percent of adult bone mass is acquired by age 18 in girls and 20 in boys.
- Building strong bones during childhood and adolescence can help prevent osteoporosis later in life.
- NOF recommends five steps to improve bone health and prevent osteoporosis:
- Get the calcium and vitamin D you need every day.
- Do regular weight-bearing and muscle-strengthening exercises.
- Don’t smoke and don’t drink too much alcohol.
- Talk to your healthcare provider about your chance of getting osteoporosis and ask when you should have a bone density test.
- Take an osteoporosis medication when it’s right for you.
Osteoporosis is manageable.
- Although there is no cure for osteoporosis, there are steps you can take to prevent, slow or stop its progress. Eating a healthy diet and exercising regularly can help slow or stop the loss of bone mass and help prevent fractures.
- About half of osteoporosis-related repeat fractures can be prevented with appropriate treatment.
- A bone density test is the best way to diagnose osteoporosis and determine a treatment plan. If your T-score is-2.5 or lower, indicating that you have osteoporosis, or if you have other significant risk factors for breaking a bone, talk to your healthcare provider about starting an osteoporosis treatment plan that includes taking an osteoporosis medicine.
- In choosing an osteoporosis medication, be sure to discuss the risks and benefits of all treatment options with your healthcare provider to determine which treatment plan is best for you.
- In order for your medicine to work, it’s important to exercise regularly an make sure you get the recommended amount of calcium and vitamin D every day from food and supplements.
- Once you start taking an osteoporosis medicine, your bone density test by central DXA should be repeated at least every two years to monitor its effects. After starting a new osteoporosis medicine, many healthcare providers will repeat a bone density test after one year.
When is Renting a Wheelchair Van Right for You?
To Fill a Gap During Repairs
When you need to make repairs to your wheelchair accessible vehicle or wheelchair van it is more difficult for you than the average car owner. What do you do when you don’t have the vehicle? Most of us don’t have a second wheelchair van we can use. When the repair is unexpected or more serious than anticipated, how do you manage? Do you cancel and reschedule all your doctors’ visits and planned activities for you and the people you care for? No! Simply make arrangements for a rental van so you can get yours repaired and still go on with your life.
To Accommodate a Visitor Using a Wheelchair
Are you or a wheelchair user you know flying into our area and need to have access to a wheelchair van rental? Would you like to have a grandmother or grandfather or other wheelchair-using relative come and spend some time with you and your family? A wheelchair van rental can give the freedom to come and stay without unnecessary barriers to family fun and mobility.
To Bring a Loved One Out From a Care Facility
For those in a nursing facility for an extended time-whether that is for a week, month or years-and those of us that care for them-visits and outings are critical for keeping spirits up and connections alive. A wheelchair van rental can make these outings better for everyone.
Wheelchair vans are much easier to use and enable most of us to handle getting someone in and out of the vehicle easily and without risk of injury or inconvenience.
Ease of use makes us all more likely to set aside the time and know that we can have a successful outing without the struggle of getting into and out of vehicles that are not wheelchair accessible
To Try a Wheelchair Van Before You Buy One
Buying a wheelchair van is a big decision and requires considerable care in making sure that the vehicle you choose will work for your particular situation. While all wheelchair vans have similarities, the differences are significant. The differences in height, width and shape may not seem like much to some. However, when you are in a wheelchair and have special equipment or physical limitations to accommodate, a couple of inches on one side or the other can be the key to complete happiness with your wheelchair van.
Maybe you think a wheelchair van would help your life but you have not been able to justify the expense. Sometimes trying it out can help you to feel that you are making the right decision. Maybe you will find that a wheelchair van is not right for you because of the fit, your family size or the conditions you drive in. Regardless, renting a wheelchair van can help you to assess that far better than a simple test drive.
When Your Disability is Only Temporary
Access to a wheelchair van can be a lifesaver when you are recovering from an injury or medical procedure that forces you to use a wheelchair for a limited period of time. Whether you have had surgery, or have suffered a broken bone or other injury, even an illness that limits your mobility, having to be in a wheelchair is not easy. Wheelchair van rentals can ensure that this temporary problem does not keep you restricted in your ability to make the most of the situation.
Having a wheelchair van rental accessible during your recovery means that the van is there when you need it. When you want to go for a ride, visit a friend or run to the store…
Using public transportation or medical transportations services limits your convenience and easy access to mobility
When you have recovered and no longer need the vehicle, simply return it to us and go on with your recovery and normal life.
For Doctor’s Visits and Medical Transportation
For the occasional doctor’s visit, using a transportation service may be a reasonable choice. However, when you are going through periods of multiple visits, testing, etc over several days or weeks or have a condition that requires regular, frequent appointments, the convenience of a wheelchair accessible van rental cannot be beat. Financially it will also work out to be less expensive in many situations.
When medical visits have got you running ragged, take some of the load off with a wheelchair van rental scheduled around your needs with the built in flexibility that comes with having it dedicated to you.
Do you want to take a detour on the way home from the doctor? Go out to lunch or do a little shopping? This is the kind of convenience that wheelchair accessible van rentals can provide.
For Special Occasions and Outings
Don’t let access to convenient wheelchair van transportation keep you from bringing your wheelchair-using loved ones to special events like weddings, birthdays, retirements and other “can’t miss” occasions. Wheelchair accessible van rentals enable you or that special person to attend significant occasions in the most convenient, comfortable and affordable manner possible.
For Road Trips and Vacations
Many people take rental wheelchair vans on long trips and vacations. Often, the wheelchair van or handicapped van they have is not large enough or dependable enough for their needs. Even with the excess mileage charges, the overall rental cost can fit into the vacation budget.