One thing that my career so far has taught me, is that everyone deserves to enjoy a life free from financial hardships, regardless of the handicap that an individual may have. This is one reason why it is important that the insurance industry has realized the need to have insurance for wheelchair and mobility scooters. It ensures that the individuals using wheelchairs and mobility scooters enjoy the same insurance rights that owners of motor vehicles have.

Wheelchair and mobility scooter insurance is important because people who use these vehicles fully rely on them for their daily activities. Because these people are handicapped, they are usually not as productive as people who do not suffer from any afflictions, and therefore the costs of maintaining the scooters and wheelchairs is a burden to them. In fact, most of them do not even own their scooters or wheelchairs but rather rent them or acquire them through assistance from the government. The complicated nature of the vehicles increases the costs of maintenance. It has been an eye opener for me to see how many of my clients in the past have at one time or another tried getting by without much in the way of comprehensive mobility coverage. People I have worked with have tried out various alternatives such as having coverage through the manufacturer, having coverage through the company renting the vehicle to them, or even just covering the costs on a more piece-meal basis as they arise.

Some insights about mobility scooter and wheelchair insurance from the workplace

Here is something different for you all. In my job as a Community Care Aid, I have from time to time, seen various physically disabled individuals make use of a wheelchair lift system that has been custom installed in their vehicles. In most cases, the people that I have seen using a lift have been van owners which makes sense considering the space needed within the vehicle to properly accommodate the lift. If you are going to use a mechanical lift for a vehicle, then you need a good amount of space in the vehicle for the lift to bring you up and in to. As well, it is likely that anyone needing the use of a lift to access the interior of their vehicle with the intention of then manually transferring them self over to the drivers seat area would be capable enough of getting into a car without any need for a lift so close to the ground. So, having established some of the obvious parameters of when and where the lift might be needed, let’s take a further look at some of the nuts and bolts of the wheelchair lift systems that are out there. Is there more than one system? Until I started working in healthcare I didn’t know the answer to that question but I since learned a thing or two.

There are several different types of wheelchair lifts for vehicles that you can use. Which one you should buy depends on what type of vehicle you are trying to equip with the wheelchair lift. Also, you need to take into account whether or not the person in the wheelchair will be driving the vehicle or will just be a passenger.

Wheelchair lifts and vehicles

Apart from both the manual and motorized wheelchairs, there is a whole other form of mobility transportation out there known as the mobility scooter. The mobility scooter is a popular means of transport for those afflicted with varying degrees of restricted personal mobility.

This time out I would like to share what I have come to learn about the personal medical mobility scooter. The mobility scooter is one of those mobility aids that is similar in concept to the motorized wheelchair, however it takes a lot of its basic design from the traditional motor scooter. I have also heard personal scooters referred to as a medical scooter, a power-operated vehicle, a seniors scooter, an electric scooter, and even once in a while as a handicap scooter. I know that in the United States there is often talk of the “medicare scooter” which is basically just a reference to any category of mobility scooter that is covered at least in part under personal health care coverage or insurance and not a reference to any one particular brand or manufacture of mobility scooter.

So I seem to know a few different names for the same vehicle, but at this point you might be wondering what else do I know about the personal scooter? I know the names, but what is ‘in the name?’

A personal mobility scooter, what is it?

Last time around, I took a look at some of the general ideas and concepts  behind the modern manual wheelchair and some of the ways in which it has continued to evolve, remaining a very adaptable mode of access for many physically disabled individuals. This time, I would like to take a similar look at the contemporary motorized wheelchair or power chair as it is also commonly known. I mentioned last time that over the more than ten years that I have been employed in the community health care field I have had ample opportunity to see first hand the variety of wheelchairs that are in use out there. This is true of both manual and electric wheelchairs. During that time I have come to appreciate that there are a number of subtle differences among the many different models and manufacturers of power chairs. through my time in health care, I have had numerous opportunities to speak with a number of people involved with the maintenance of motorized wheelchairs. As well, out of simple curiosity I have searched out some information on the different chairs of my clients. I feel that these experiences have helped me to over time gain a stronger understanding of how power chairs work and how they can truly benefit those dealing with a restriction of their mobility.

So when I am talking about a motorized wheelchair, what exactly am I talking about? A motorized or electric wheelchair, as they are also commonly referred to, is an electrically powered  wheelchair that makes use of either a series of belts or a system of gears and sometimes even both. Typically, the powered wheelchairs that rely on a system of belt drives are very quiet when in operation, however they will often require more maintenance on average to keep them in peak operating order. In contrast, the contemporary gear drive based motorized chairs are fairly quiet and relatively low maintenance, however they are known to wear out more quickly than equivalent chairs using  belt drives and as the gear drives wear out the chairs become much noisier while in operation.

On the drive with motorized wheelchairs

At the building where I work, a number of the clients are heavily reliant on the use of either an electric mobility scooter or an electric powered wheelchair to get around and perform many of their daily activities.  some rent their chairs or scooters while others have outright purchased them, either entirely with their own money or with the assistance of government.

Regardless of the ownership status of their chairs, all of these people share one need in common: the need, from time to time, for servicing of their mobility devices when they stop working properly.  In addition, most of the people that I work with have some kind of coverage set up with any one of the companies out there that offer maintenance services for these kinds of vehicles. I have come to realize however, that it is the nature of this coverage which can vary greatly.

Most, if not all of my clients have had to arrange for avisit from a wheelchair or mobility scooter repair person at one time or another; over my years of working at my site I have been witness to the comings and goings of these repair people and come to appreciate how much it means to my clients that they are able to have these people come to them instead of having to arrange delivery of their malfunctioning vehicles to the repair locations. Some times this has been the result of the vehicles still being under warranties but other times it has been the result of having to pay for the visit as a separate expense.  Still other times it has been handled under the provisions of a client’s insurance policy/agreement coverage with a mobility scooter and powered wheelchair insurance provider.

When it is time to make some key decisions about insurance for your personal mobility vehicle

You know there was a time a few years back when I was completely unfamilair with  the world of wheelchairs, a time when I was completely clueless about how they might have evolved or changed in the last thirty or fifty years. Heck, I probably could not have even told you much of anything about how they might have changed in the last one hundred years! Well, now that I have been exposed to both manual and motorized wheelchairs (among other things) in my occupation, I feel a bit more informed on the subject.

Even going back say fifty years, the manual wheelchair had a pretty standard design and you probably would not have seen much variation with it. There was a common design that allowed for good stability but a very limited range of motion for someone using a manual chair. They were by design heavy and a bit too cumbersome for use anywhere except on a flat surface. This should come as no surprise when you consider that until that time, the intention of such mobility aids was to facilitate the mobility and access of a physically disabled person to their local surroundings. Although one could maneuver the chair themself, it was expected that in many cases the person using the chair would have assistance in moving around while in the chair. Many severely disabled or senior persons would obviously have a complete reliance on others for getting about in their chairs. Of course with the more recent development of the current motorized wheelchair we have seen a far greater increase in personal mobility for the disabled and seniors.

The evolution of wheelchairs from manual to power assist

This post is just a brief aside because I wanted to take the time to give a shout out to the Vancouver Resource Society (also known as VRS), a local Community Care Agency in my city of Vancouver, British Columbia, which is “an accredited non-profit organization providing accessible housing with support services to people with disabilities.” I have already mentioned them before on this site but I have recently come to notice that they have made some very appealing changes to the layout and design of their organization’s home website making it easier for visitors to find their way around while visiting there. I already have a link to their site on this site’s sidebar, so if you wish to check out the VRS and their new and improved site, you can find the link over on the right. (if it does not show up because you are not reading this on my homepage then the link is also back at the start of this post – clever, huh?) I hope to be back here soon enough with a new post regarding the various kinds of wheelchair, both manual and motorized, that have traditionally been available for those dealing with varying degrees of physical disabilities.

A tip of the hat to the new VRS website

Recently, during a conversation with some friends, the subject of my work in health care came up and after a while my friends started asking me questions of how most of my clients handled their daily activities that occurred in the bathroom. I entertained their questions to the best of my ability, choosing to give them a more basic or general idea of what is involved for a disabled individual making their way about the bathroom in their home and including descriptions of the various mobility aids that are available to assist them making sure that I did  not get too bogged down with specifics of such things as brand names of the manufacturers of these bathroom-based aids or the variations in each type (or class) of assistive device.

In no particular order, I would like to review here the things that I covered during that conversation. One of the more obvious needs of the disabled individual in the bathroom is the need to have unfettered access to the commode; being able to maintain an effective and regular bowel routine is obviously of the utmost importance and naturally there are mobility aids designed to facilitate this need.

The bathroom: Now less challenging for the physically disabled

Welcome back! Last time I went over the things that I have come to know about the modern motorized or electric wheelchair. This time I will go over what I have learned about another popular mobility device: the medical mobility scooter. The mobility scooter is a mobility aid or device that is similar in concept to the motorized wheel chair, but it is configured in much the same way as a motor scooter. It is occasionally also referred to as such things as a power-operated vehicle, a medical scooter, a personal mobility scooter or even as an electric scooter. I have even heard references to it as being a handicap scooter once in a while, but I don’t particularly prefer the choice of “handicap scooter” as a name for it.  You might also once in a while see references made to a “medicare scooter”; this is not so much a reference to any particular manufacturer or model of personal mobility scooters as much as it is a reference to the category or subject of a Government Health Care agency funded personal mobility scooter. It is important to not let yourself be confused by all of the different handles or references out there!

“Medical scooters?”
“Medicare scooters?”

So, what exactly is in the name?   What’s it all about?

Getting further afield with the personal mobility scooter

A couple of years ago I remember putting my thoughts about mobility aids in the bathroom onto ‘digital paper’. I was reflecting on how much of an eye opener my time so far in Community care had been when it came to realizing just how much the bathroom had become much less challenging for the physically disabled. At that time it had been a discussion with some friends about my job in healthcare and what it entails that had got me thinking about the subject. They had been asking me about how some of my clients manage their way around the bathroom and I had dome my best to accomodate their questions, to give them answers that would make sense without getting myself bogged down with too many details of how things work, the names of the devices or the differences in the different versions of such bathroom based assistive devices and such.

So a few years removed from that initial effort, I would like to take another look at what is out there when it comes to mobility aids for the bathroom.

Over my years in community care, I have had the opportunity to observe a variety of personal commode chairs owned by a number of different clients. The basic idea of the commode chair is that it is a chair on which the disabled individual can safely sit upon and complete their regular bathroom bowel routine. Despite differences between the various styles and manufacturers, the basic chair design remains pretty consistent. The chair is usually just a basic skeleton-like framework which is ideal for something that is intended to be able to be rolled into a shower. Most of these chairs are able to be outfitted with a collection bucket underneath if they are not going to be used over a toilet. When first getting a commode chair for personal use.

A life more pleasant in the bathroom because of assistive devices