Many assisted living facility residents are dealing with new ailments, injuries, or life-altering conditions that made living unassisted in their previous homes impossible. According to the US CDC, almost 15 percent of all US adults have a serious mobility-limiting disability, and this percentage only increases when looking at older age brackets. Assisted living facilities provide a safe and secure location for wheelchair-bound senior citizens to live and grow together under the care of trained staff and caregivers. Today, we will discuss some of the most common issues that people who use wheelchairs face in their daily lives and how assisted living facilities can help.
Common Issues Facing Wheelchair Users
While we would hope that the world at large accommodates the needs of people in wheelchairs, the harsh truth is that many areas of life are more challenging when you add a wheelchair into the equation.
Transportation – Even the simplest trip to the store can be a complex challenge for older Americans in wheelchairs. To start, if injuries or aging recently made a wheelchair a necessity in your life, you might not have the proper resources in place to facilitate self-transport. Vehicles that accommodate wheelchairs and allow people to operate the car without using their legs exist, but they are not standard, and relearning how to drive isn’t always easy.
Furthermore, your final destination also needs to be accessible for wheelchairs. A study by the National Institute of Health found that no study that investigated the accessibility of public buildings returned a 100% compliance rate with local, state, and federal disability accessibility laws. When someone in a wheelchair is out in public, they are unfortunately at the mercy of those who make decisions regarding upgrades to existing infrastructure.
Hand Injuries and Loss of Hand Usage – Wheelchairs provide a fantastic and liberating way for people to move on their own following the loss of function of their legs, but it still comes with distinct disadvantages. Most crucially is the need for the wheelchair user to constantly use their hands to move forward. Any repetitive motion can lead to injuries, bruises, or sprains, and this is no different.
Additionally, this also prevents someone in a wheelchair from carrying or manipulating objects when on the go. A basket or storage can help move things from point A to point B, but something that needs frequent use, like a water bottle on a hot day, will need to be picked up and placed down repeatedly, another repetitive motion that can lead to injuries over time.
Uncomfortableness – Most people know the feeling of standing up and stretching after a long day of work behind a desk – often, you don’t even realize how uncomfortable you really are until you get out of the chair. However, for people limited to a wheelchair all day, they can experience extreme levels of discomfort that can’t easily be remedied. While not everyone in a wheelchair has a total loss of leg movement, it can still be challenging for seniors to stand up and stretch their legs even when supported.
How Assisted Living Facilities Can Help
Assisted living facilities are designed with the needs of their residents in mind. Our residents who use wheelchairs receive assistance from our caregivers and nurses with years of experience helping people in similar situations. Similarly, we provide transportation accommodations for residents who need additional help getting out and about on their own for errands.
A Banyan Residence is a professional assisted living and memory care facility in Venice, Florida. Contact us today for a tour and more information on how we can help the person in your life using a wheelchair.
