Tag Archives: mobility

Be Prepared For Natural Disasters

Natural disasters can take place at any moment and can come in any form from floods, severe weather, earthquakes and more, yielding unfortunate outcomes without warning.  Being prepared can save lives and planning is important; know who will help you if you need assistance or if you need to evacuate.

Be Informed
Ensure you have the proper equipment to stay up-to-the-minute on breaking news and changing weather patterns. You may need a radio for this, specifically one that runs on batteries so be sure you have extras. Know when, where and what local branches of organizations like American Red Cross, have planned in your specific location, and find out how they can help. Also, ensure you can maintain contact with those outside of your home, having a phone car charger and jumper cables could be essential.

Make a Plan
For people with mobility challenges, assistance can be crucial.

If are a caregiver, or if you have assembled a “Help Team” to assist a person in need:

  • Be helpful in letting others know exactly what you need and when you need it.
  • Contact family, friends, neighbors or social service agencies if and when possible.
  • Try to have someone available who can lift and carry heavy objects such as wheelchairs or other medical equipment.
  • Give at least one other person a key to the person’s home.
  • Each team member should have the contact information for the others.
  • Name a substitute caregiver in case the original is unavailable.

Develop an evacuation strategy with your “Disaster Team,” and consider the following:

  • Where are the closest special needs emergency shelters and what are the different routes you can take to reach them?
  • What supplies must you take with you that are used every day?
  • Whom should you inform that you are evacuating?
  • How much gas do you have and how much will much will you need? Be sure to keep your vehicle’s gas tank over 1/2 full at all times.

Make a Kit
Assemble your kit well in advance with the help of a list and be sure to include:

  • Water – Keep one gallon of water per person (and per pet) per day for at least three days. Make sure you replace the water every six months.
  • Food – Keep at least a 3-day stock of non-perishable food that requires little cooking and no refrigeration in a safe place. Include a manual can opener and eating utensils.

For those with mobility disAbilities:

  • Pair of heavy gloves to use while wheeling or making your way over glass and debris
  • Extra battery for your motorized wheelchair or scooter
  • Jumper cables or specific recharging device to be connected to an automobile’s cigarette lighter
  • Patch kit or can of “seal-in-air product” to repair flat tires
  • Spare cane or walker
  • Food, medicine, favorite toy, and other care items for your service animal
  • Plastic bags, disposable gloves, and other items for the animal’s care

Find out if you qualify for assistance and fill out a form in advance to ensure your safety should the need arise. And be aware of FEMA resources in your area, including their capabilities and the best way to reach them.

Rehabilitation Information

Rehabilitation describes specialized healthcare dedicated to improving, maintaining or restoring physical strength, cognition and mobility with maximized results. Typically, rehabilitation helps people gain greater independence after illness, injury or surgery.

Usually delivered by a diverse team of experts, rehabilitation blends many specialties for the best treatment plan, such as:

  • Physical therapy for increased strength and mobility
  • Occupational therapy for improved everyday living skills
  • Speech and language therapy for improved communication

Enhanced healing and function with rehabilitation therapy

Rehabilitation plays a critical role in healing, repair and recovery in a wide range of injuries, illnesses and conditions:

  • Improves speech, everyday skills and mobility in stroke, head injury and other neurological disorders
  • Strengthens bones and promotes muscular healing after total joint replacement surgery and other orthopedic surgery
  • Maximizes function and independence after spinal cord injury
  • And many others

Rehabilitation therapy pairs a team of expert doctors, nurses, therapists and other healthcare professionals with advanced technology. Each plan is custom-designed for the patient’s diverse individual needs.

Things You Should Know Before Renting a Wheelchair Accessible Van

Whether your own wheelchair accessible vehicle is undergoing repairs or modifications or you’re testing the adaptive automobile waters before taking the plunge with the purchase of one, renting a Wheelchair Accessible Van is an affordable, convenient and comfortable way of improving your mobility.

If you’re looking to rent this type of vehicle, these are some good tips to keep in mind.

How Much Does It Cost To Rent A Handicap Van?
If you’re all about saving your pennies, there are many ways to reduce the cost of renting a wheelchair accessible van. Here are just a few:

  • Avoid renting an accessible vehicle airport. Enjoy lower taxes and minimal fees by going to a dealer or rental agency outside the airport grounds.
  • Reserve online whenever possible to take advantage of special offers.
  • Fill up the tank before returning the vehicle. More often than not, this will be less expensive than paying the fill-up fee or pre-paying for gas at the rental agency.
  • Don’t double up on insurance. If your personal auto insurance already covers you for rentals, make sure you don’t sign up for redundant coverage.

Where to Go
Many mobility dealers maintain a fleet of accessible cars or conversion vans for rental purposes. Identify and contact the location nearest you to find out if they have handicap vehicles available to meet your needs. There are also a number of companies that specialize in accessible rental vehicles.

When to Rent
A wheelchair accessible van or car can transform the lives of people with disabilities or temporary mobility impairment. Renting a wheelchair accessible vehicle can be particularly helpful when:

  • Your current wheelchair accessible vehicle requires repairs or maintenance over a period of multiple days.
  • You’re going on a road trip or long ride – a rented wheelchair accessible vehicle can make these much more comfortable. Even if you own a wheelchair accessible vehicle, you might still consider renting a vehicle in order to avoid putting the mileage and wear on your own van.
  • A loved one or family member with a disability visits. If you don’t own an accessible vehicle, renting a wheelchair accessible vehicle can facilitate transporting your friends and family.

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.

Top Tips For Helping A Student With A Disability Settle Into a University

Waving a child off to university for the first time is never easy. But if they also happen to have a disability, either physical or mental, the practical aspects of letting go become even more complicated.

Where possible, encourage your child to take the lead in establishing what your role should be. Finding ways to communicate about what they hope to achieve from their time at university, and helping them to plan the first few steps is a useful way for everyone to get used to the transition.


Identifying needs

Sit down together and have an honest conversation about how you both feel that disability affects your child’s life. What sort of support do you normally offer? What happens if nobody is there to support them? What makes it more difficult for him or her to manage their condition? What coping strategies make it easier?

Draw up a brief outline of what a regular day or week looks like, taking into account bad days as well as the best. You can use this to identify key needs and health risks – a handy reference point during university visits and open days, or when applying for disability support packages (like Disabled Students Allowance and Social Services support).

This is also a useful exercise to repeat after your child’s first term or year at university: how is it different to what you both expected? Are there any additional obstacles that you might need to address?


Choosing a university

It’s always worth visiting potential universities to get a realistic feel for how it suits your student child. An off-campus site may cause challenges for physically impaired students if they have to travel all over town for lectures, or if there are lots of cobbled streets or hills.

A lot of older buildings may not be fully wheelchair accessible. If getting lost is an issue, it’s a good idea to map out regular routes together and try them out a few times before term begins.

It’s also worth thinking about the impact of living on campus, and how different types of accommodation may impact study and socialising. Is the university near a good medical facility, for instance? Some students will want to consider how close to home they are: nothing is less cool than having your mum pay an unexpected visit when all your mates are over, but having somebody near enough to make the journey might be useful in emergencies.

Remember, all universities have a legal obligation to make reasonable adjustments to a course or building to cater for a recognised medical need. Speak to university representatives to find out who will be looking out for your child. All universities should have a disability support team, so get in touch to discuss the help that they can offer.


Creating a network

Working together, make a list of the people your child is able to turn to for assistance and support. This may be parents, friends, family doctors, tutors and / or university disability support teams. Encourage your child to have discussions with the people who support them about the assistance they think they might need. Is there somebody who can make a check-in phone call once a week? Would it help to plan regular reviews or a quick visit every now and then?

Make sure expectations are clear, but reasonable – it’s important that everybody’s needs are being met, including your own. If your child has organisational difficulties, they might want to stick the list on a wall, or somewhere easy to find in an emergency.

Don’t forget that when they are over the age of 18, they may be entitled to support from social services. Contact your local council for more information.


Applying for extra support

Disabled Students Allowance (DSA) can offer helpful aids you may not have thought of: from adapted desks, to funding for taxis, to note takers. Information is available here.

DSA applications take a long time to be processed, and will need to be assessed by a representative before any funding or equipment is offered. It can also take months for this equipment to actually arrive, so make a note of deadlines and submit the applications as soon as you can.

These forms can be incredibly overwhelming: help to fill them out in as much detail as possible (as always, taking into account your child’s worst health days) may make the process less frustrating.


Being heard

Universities are huge, complex administrative bodies and it is easy to get lost within the system. If nobody speaks up when a student is facing challenges, even relatively small ones, it’s likely that they will be missed.

But part of the university experience is also about learning through making mistakes. Try not to panic if it seems that your child’s needs aren’t being met. Keep up the communication to make sure that these issues do not spiral out of control.

Being available during emergencies may be necessary, but for day to day issues, it will be a huge achievement every time the student in question is able to seek out the support they need themselves.

Pushing hard enough to ensure that all needs are being met can be frustrating and difficult, but nobody responds well to force. One of the hardest challenges for everyone involved with a disability can be finding the right tone to ask for what is necessary.Helping to find ways to communicate their own needs with confidence and positivity is probably the best gift you can offer at a time like this. Keep coming back to your initial plans and reassessing the situation. Your input and relationship will probably change along the way, but this is all just part of the process, and an entirely necessary part of becoming the parent of a grown-up human being.

Helping to find ways to communicate their own needs with confidence and positivity is probably the best gift you can offer at a time like this. Keep coming back to your initial plans and reassessing the situation. Your input and relationship will probably change along the way, but this is all just part of the process, and an entirely necessary part of becoming the parent of a grown-up human being.