Stand up lifts are an integral part of aging at home. They help to keep seniors both safe and active, and are also essential in recovering from an injury or surgery. If you’re considering getting a stand-up lift for a loved one (or for yourself), here are a few reasons why you should make that purchase.
Increase Safety
Stand-up lifts (also called Hoyer lifts) can help to increase senior safety while keeping the senior independent without the need for a full traditional ceiling or floor lift. Stand-up lifts allow the senior to safely perform transfers around the home (such as from a bed to a chair), while providing them with stability and support to help prevent falls during the transfer.
While these lifts offer the support and stability that a senior may need, they do so in a way that is unrestrictive. There’s no waiting for a caregiver to bring over a ceiling lift, and you’re not restricted to only traveling along a ceiling lift’s track. Stand-up lifts are smaller and more versatile than a traditional sling lift, making them ideal for home use.
Develop Strength
Because of their innovative design, stand-up lifts offer support but also encourage the user to build their own strength. A traditional sling lift eliminates the need for the user to do anything, but with a stand-up lift, the user must pull themselves up and remain active in the transfer process. This is essential to building strength, especially after an illness, hospitalization, or injury.
Build Proper Standing Posture
Since the stand-up lift transfers users in a standing position, it can be a useful tool for developing a proper standing posture. You’ll find that many stand up lifts allow you to adjust the amount of support that the knee pads provide, so you can gradually decrease the support as the user develops their posture and balance. Using this lift can even increase a user’s range of motion, especially when compared with the constrictive nature of sitting in a wheelchair.
Facilitate Rehabilitation
If you’re recovering from an injury, illness, or surgery, a stand-up lift is the perfect way to facilitate your rehabilitation. This lift bridges the times where a user cannot walk versus when they can walk without assistance, and helps to keep a user safe during that valuable recovery period. Physical therapists can incorporate the use of a stand-assist lift into their program, and a user can continue their own therapy by using the lift at home.
Stand-up lifts are fairly simple devices, but they can make or break aging at home. MedMart offers many different stand-up lifts for you to choose from. If you have any questions about which lift may be right for your needs, please don’t hesitate to contact us – we’d be happy to help.