For people who are in their elder years or who struggle with their mobility, climbing and descending stairs can be very difficult and painful. Sometimes, the struggle is so unbearable that the person is required to leave their home and move into a bungalow, but this shouldn’t have to become a necessary transfer. The ideal solution is to have a stairlift installed.
Stairlifts are motorized lifting devices which are parked at the top or bottom of their stairs and allow the user to move along a track that is fitted in conjunction with the staircase. If the user is downstairs and the lift is upstairs, he/she can summon it with a remote control, while the permanently-charging battery means that the lift will never grind to a sudden halt midway along the stairs.
If the primary user of the stairlift has joint problems such as arthritis which makes it hard for him/her to sit down, he/she can get a perch stairlift, which only requires minimal knee movement while still featuring the comfort and safety that you’d expect from a stairlift. Safety features such as strap-in belts come as standard, so there is no fear of the user falling off the lift.
Even if your staircase is not straight from top to bottom, that won’t preclude you from buying a stairlift. They can be custom-made to fit your staircase’s specifications and shape, although curved stairlifts will naturally cost substantially more due to the bespoke nature of the job and the complexity of work required. It usually takes 5-6 weeks for a curved stairlift to be fitted, approximately twice as long as a straight stairlift would need.
This video from Home Healthcare Adaptations (http://www.home-healthcare-adaptations.ie/stairlifts-dublin/) offers a brilliantly summarized yet highly informative beginner’s guide to stairlifts. These fantastic pieces of equipment provide a huge boost to an elderly or immobile person’s independence and self-esteem, so they are well worth the investment.
stairlift
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