Summary
Key Questions Answered
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What should you consider about your home before choosing mobility equipment? Mobility equipment should fit the environment where it will be used. Doorways, bathroom layouts, flooring, available space, and obstacles can all affect whether a device is practical, safe, and easy to use every day.
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Why does mobility equipment need to fit the individual—not just the diagnosis? The right equipment must match a person's height, weight, strength, balance, cognitive abilities, and overall skill level. A device that is too large, too small, or too difficult to operate can reduce independence and even increase the risk of falls.
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How do different home environments influence equipment choices? Features such as carpet versus hard flooring, tight hallways, small bathrooms, and furniture placement can determine which mobility device works best. The ideal option balances the person's functional needs with the realities of their living space.
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Can the wrong mobility device create new safety problems? Yes. Equipment that doesn't fit the person or the environment can make everyday tasks more difficult, create new hazards, or discourage use altogether. Choosing the wrong device can lead to frustration, wasted money, and a greater risk of injury.
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Why is proper training still important after selecting the right equipment?
Even well-matched equipment requires users and caregivers to understand how to use it safely. Learning the correct techniques helps people get the greatest benefit from their device while reducing the risk of accidents during everyday activities.
Transcript
Brandy Archie
Hi, everybody. Welcome to CareLab. You have just dropped into part two of a conversation already in progress. So if you listen to part one about five questions you should ask before buying a mobility device, then we appreciate you. And we are here for part two. If you did not listen to the first part, go ahead and finish listening to this one and then go back in here the other one so you can get all the information, all the detail that you need. So, Emilia
Where should we start today? We have two questions left, yes?
Emilia Bourland
We have two questions left, and these are so foundational. If you're actually if you're listening to part two before part one, that's totally fine. These are some of
Brandy Archie
Time.
Emilia Bourland
the most foundational questions that you can ask. The first one is: Does this piece of equipment fit in the environment?
Brandy Archie
Mm.
Emilia Bourland
How many times have you seen something, Brandy, that people ordered or was given to them or whatever And
Brandy Archie
Mm-hmm.
Emilia Bourland
it doesn't work because it doesn't actually fit in the environment. How many times have you seen that?
Brandy Archie
I mean literally hundreds. And then what ends up with that is it ends up in the garage and nobody's using it and they wasted their money on it. So yes, so many
Emilia Bourland
Mm-hmm.
Brandy Archie
ways.
Emilia Bourland
Yeah. So, like a great example might be, and and y'all know if you've listened to old Care Lab episodes, you probably know that Brandy and I are both big fans of tub transfer benches. It's probably one of the pieces of equipment that I have recommended the most over
Brandy Archie
The most.
Emilia Bourland
my career as an OT. They're absolutely wonderful, but they don't fit in every single situation or environment because part
Brandy Archie
That's right.
Emilia Bourland
of them do stick out beyond the tub.
If you have a really, really tiny bathroom, sometimes that can cause
Brandy Archie
Mm.
Emilia Bourland
actually a mobility impairment that we have to then either rearrange or we need to work around or we need special training in order to use it to make sure that that it's still gonna be safe in there. so yeah, making sure that the piece of equipment that's being ordered actually is going to fit within the environment is absolutely essential.
Brandy Archie
Yeah, and it it can be as simple as like this tub bench is to like hits up against where the toilet is at. So we shower once every couple of days, we use the toilet multiple times of day. This is in the way, how can we deal with this differently? That's like literally just like inches and size issue. It also and and that's important to pay attention to s but also fitting in the environment might also be like it might deal with different things. I had a patient one time
Who was challenged with their ability to walk around their house and was we had this really hard decision beside between like getting another walking device, or getting a a powered or a wheeled device. And it was there's so many factors that played into that. Could she actually push a manual chair? Could she drive a power wheelchair safely? She had
really shaggy carpet. When you get a power
Emilia Bourland
Mm.
Brandy Archie
wheelchair and you're turning around on that carpet, eventually you're gonna pull that carpet up, you know, and like make it wrinkly. And so there's a lot of things to be like, which ones do we care the most about? What are we gonna go through? So like fitting in the environment is inches and feet. but it's also like carpet or tile. you know, whether they can man use that thing or not.
Emilia Bourland
Ca can I just like really carpet
or tile people? This is a big deal if you have to use any kind of wheeled mobility device, even if it's
Brandy Archie
Yeah.
Emilia Bourland
a walker, but especially if you're in a wheelchair and you're trying to push yourself, this is an important thing to consider. Sorry.
Brandy Archie
And it goes right back
to the very first question that we asked, which is does the environment support the equipment support the desired task? So we had to go backwards and think like, why are we getting this? because you're having falls on the way to the bathroom. What is the flooring like here? Okay, so we ended up deciding to get a manual chair because even though it was harder to push on the carpet, she only had to do that for a few feet, and then she was going down a hallway that she could better access with a manual chair.
than she could with trying to drive a power chair and like hitting the walls. Like all these things play a factor. So so yeah, fitting the environment can be a lot of different reasons it fits or doesn't fit them.
Emilia Bourland
Okay, last question. This is again, this is so so important. Does the piece of equipment fit the person? I'm gonna give a really specific example. This happened very recently. went to see someone and they had just gotten a walker. The walker was recommended to them by by their PT. it was provided by insurance. But this this particular person was very
Small in stature, like tiny, tiny, adult, but very tiny. They couldn't use their walker appropriately because it was a regular size walker. They needed a pediatric walker in
Brandy Archie
Mm.
Emilia Bourland
order for it to actually be functional. So that's just one kind of small example. But if if the equipment doesn't fit the person actually, both in terms of the like the size and the weight and the height of the person, but also the skill set.
of the person, do they have the capacity
Brandy Archie
Yes.
Emilia Bourland
to use this piece of equipment, which is a huge question there? then again, it's it's not going to one, help with the function it's supposed to help to, and two, it could actually make things less safe than they were before if it doesn't have that right fit for the person, both physically and with their skill ability.
Brandy Archie
Yeah, a great example of this is the difference between having a regular walker and a rollator. A rollator
Emilia Bourland
Mm.
Brandy Archie
looks nicer. They're usually colorful or different colors that you might like as opposed to like a silver fold up walker. They have a seat, they have a basket, everybody's trying to carry stuff. Makes total sense. And those are all good functional things. But if your balance can't accommodate for you moving faster with the rollator, it's not the right solution. It doesn't fit the person. You talked about the skill set. that's like a a really good example where like
Actually a two-wheeled walker moves slower because it only has two wheels and not four. And we need that. So maybe we can find a way to add a tray to the walker that to the two wheeled walker so we can be safe and still carry stuff. it just all really depends. You might be a person who weighs more than three hundred pounds, so you need a wider walker for you to fit your body in.
But also can that walker fit into the bathroom or where else you need it to go to? And like weighing the pros and cons of each, like is really important. So like fitting the person is like paramount. We should have probably started with that, but like we just
Emilia Bourland
Probably.
Brandy Archie
we maybe we we put these in reverse order. This is the top one, the most important thing. there's there's also other reasons like if we have a person with dementia and they need
some support with walking. can that device be really intuitive for them to use it without having to learn a new thing? They might not be capable of learning a new thing. so should we have that device at all or should we get the lower version of that device so that it can
Emilia Bourland
Mm-hmm.
Brandy Archie
be more intuitive for them to use and easier for them to pick up? All things to consider.
Emilia Bourland
Yeah, I think this is this is listen, we're gonna pretend like we did this in backwards re like reverse
Brandy Archie
Ha ha.
Emilia Bourland
order of importance, although we didn't, because the first question that we started with was does it support a desired actual functional need? And and I think
Brandy Archie
Which is really important too.
Emilia Bourland
I think that is probably I think that's the first question still, because it's like why are we getting this? Why is this important? Right. But definitely a
Very close number two is does this actually fit the person and and their skill set? Like another example, sliding boards are absolutely wonderful pieces of equipment to help with transfers. But in order to use a sliding board, someone needs good sitting balance. And they have to be able to follow directions, at least some level of directions. And if they can't do those two things, then it's not gonna be, it's not gonna be a good fit. In fact, it's
probably gonna make a situation much less safe, both for the caregiver and for the person who needs to the assistance with the transfer, right? So thinking about this idea, does this fit the person again, physically? Do they have the cognitive skills that they need in order to be able to use this piece of equipment or learn how to use this piece of equipment? and do they have the other physical skills that they need?
to be able to use this piece of equipment. And if we, if all of those things don't line up, then ultimately we need to find a different solution in order to meet that functional need.
Brandy Archie
Yeah, I think your slide board example is really good. We should also say that a slide board is a piece of it's like a piece of wood or a piece of plastic that bridges
Emilia Bourland
Mm-hmm.
Brandy Archie
you from one seat to the other. And so yes, you have to have good core strength and yes, you have to follow directions a new thing to learn. And also, what do you do with that board after you get done? Are you gonna be independent with this transfer? If so, you need to also be able to put it in a bag or put it to the side. Do you have the ability to pick that board up? Is it light enough?
For you to manage it or are you always gonna be doing this with a caregiver who's gonna manage the board? You know, like for for kind of one of the most simple pieces of like literally a slide board is just a piece of could just be a piece of wood, no tech to it or nothing, it still requires like thinking through the full process and not just the scooting from one place to another.
Emilia Bourland
Which which brings us back to another one of our questions. Has the person been trained to use it? Right. So listen, this is a great place. If you have if you haven't heard the first episode and you finishing this one now, please take a moment to go back to the first episode of this part. If you're interested in slide boards, we actually have an episode where we have one and we talk about it. so you can go back and find that. You can watch that actually on YouTube if you're if you're someone who watches this on YouTube.
These questions are so important before we A introduce pieces of equipment, B, spend money or resources on equipment, or C assume that equipment is going to actually make us safer. I say this knowing full and well, Brandy and I are both professionals who who recommend and train people in equipment all the time. And we believe that equipment can make people's lives so much better.
But if you don't have the right equipment for the right person for the right task and the right environment, none of that matters. so take if you have, like I said, if you haven't listened to both episodes, take a second after you finish this one, go back and listen to part one. if you have a question, if you have a comment, please leave those in the comment section. We would love to answer your questions or hear what you think. Hear if there's other questions that you have that you think should be applied to this topic or
other topics that you'd like to talk us to talk about, please take a second to like, subscribe, share, leave us a review so that we can reach more people. And until next time, we'll see you right back here on Care Lab. Bye.
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