Safe Caregiving and Home Health Equipment - 5 Items That Can Make a Difference

These five pieces of home health equipment can make a big difference for people with mobility challenges and for their caregivers. Of course, before using them consult with your doctor to see if they are appropriate for the condition.

1. LIGHTER WEIGHT WHEELCHAIRS - Lighter than the 40 or 50 pound heavy wheelchairs, these are easier for a caregiver to lift into and out of a car, helping to avoid caregiver injuries.

Search the internet and you'll see there are wheelchairs weighing closer to 30 pounds or even less. There are ultralight weight folding wheelchairs with removable backs and legs. When you take them apart it only takes a few seconds and is easier to lift. They are also easier to push either by a caregiver or by self-propulsion.

They are often more expensive, but used wheelchairs or demos can be found.

2. ROLLATOR WALKERS WITH SEATS - Taking a walk around the neighborhood or into a store can be tiring and a walker with a seat provides an emergency resting place. The rollator type walkers have handbreaks and wheels on all four legs. To fold them up, you pull up the seat, and then push or pull a button on each side to fold the legs in.

3. SHOWER CHAIRS WITH LEGS ADJUSTED TO A COMFORTABLE HEIGHT - Getting up from a low chair is one of the difficulties faced by people with mobility challenges. Assisting with a manual lift can be difficult for a caregiver too. The plastic shower chairs have adjustable legs. If you raise the chair to a height that is easier for the person to rise from this can make it less of a struggle to get up. It will be safer for the caregiver as well if there is less lifting.

4. RAISED TOILET SEATS WITH SIDERAILS - Again, rising from a low area, such as a regular commode, can be difficult for people who are frail, who have arthritis in the knees, or who have difficulties with their hips or backs. Caregivers can help save themselves from lifting injuries if the person they assist has higher seating and can get up more easily.

5. BEDSIDE COMMODE - Visits to the restroom in the middle of the night, especially, can be difficult or risky when people are sleepy and might feel wobbly on their feet. Avoiding a fall is always important.

Many people feel the need to visit the commode several times a night. A bedside commode makes this safer by reducing fall risk. Also, it can be safer for the caregiver who is doing a transfer assist or ambulation assist. Again, the commode legs can be adjusted so the person does not have to struggle to rise from a low position.

Safe Lifting Portal Website RE: Federal Nurse and Patient Safety Legislation Addresses Lifting Injuries

Too often family caregivers and paid caregivers may not realize the risks of injury from lifting loved ones or patients. Back, shoulder and knee injuries, arthritis, and other musculoskeletal problems can occur from lifting patients or family members. A look at healthcare professionals such as nurses shows they are at high risk for injuries from lifting patients. For example, at SafeLiftingPortal.com the statistics show "direct care nurses rank 10th among all occupations for musculoskeletal disorders, sustaining injuries at a higher rate than laborers, movers or truck drivers."

SafeLiftingPortal.com provides the news that HR 378, the Nurse and Patient Safety and Protection Act of 2007, proposes a Federal Grant Program to provide financial assistance to facilities to help with the purchase of safe patient handling equipment to reduce lifting injuries.

Injuries can occur from a single trauma or from repeated movement over a period of time. When a loved one is in need of assistance for transfers from the bed to the wheelchair, in the home, family members or friends may heroically provide help but put themselves at risk for an injury. Lifting devices are available for home care, and it is better to be careful than get a back, shoulder, knee or other injury from lifting someone. Even repositioning a person who is in bed can require lifting movements that may cause or exacerbate problems.

At SafeLiftingPortal.com there is information about what makes a safe lifting environment, about lifting products, news and more.

"Safe Lifting Environment" Campaign Addresses Caregiver Lifting Injuries

At Safe Lifting Portal caregivers can join the "Safe Lifting Environment Campaign and Support Injury Prevention, which is an industry wide effort to reduce caregiver injuries. Caregivers in the health industry have one of the highest rates of back injuries due to the lifting involved. An analysis done by The National Institute for Safety and Health recommends a 35 pound limit for patient handling tasks. Whether you are lifting people from the bed to a wheelchair, doing a partial lift for a transfer, or repositioning someone who is in bed there are techniques and lifting devices to prevent back injuries.


Tom Waters, Phd. in the August 2007 American Journal of Nursing refers to an analysis that recommends a 35 pound limit for patient handling. The analysis was done by the National Institute for Safety and Health.

At the website for Nursing Center you can read the article by Tom Water, PHd, about the 1994 National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health Revised NIOSH Lifting Equation and the recommended 35 pound maximum weight limit for patient handling.

When I worked for caregiver agencies it was not uncommon to be asked by a patient/client to do a total lift of a patient weighting around 100 pounds from the bed to the wheelchair. Because I had previous training as a Certified Nursing Assistant, Home Health Aide, and in Acute Care, I knew the dangers. I would decline to do a lift like this, and requested a lift device, which can be delivered to the home. Get more help and/or use a lift device when this happens in order to be safe. A patient or client could also be dropped or both people could fall during a heavy lift.

Often the patients do not wish to be lifted by a lift device, perhaps because it is a new and strange idea. Or the caregivers may not use one because they are not familiar with the lift device or trained in how to use it. In facilities the caregivers, aides, and nurses are working under a time pressure, and the lifts may be in use by someone else.

When the lift device is introduced in a user friendly manner, and the caregivers are trained well, it can become another part of the usual routine.

There is a list of states at the website which have passed or introduced legislation to reduce injuries from "hazardous manual lifting."

OSHA, the U.S. Occupational Health and Safety Administration has released ergonomic guidelines for nursing homes with guidance to reduce lift injureis.

Family caregivers provide the majority of home care, and too frequently they do not realize the risks they are taking when they lift people from the bed to the wheelchair, or do transfers when people are too weak to assist. Repositioning people in bed, which requires leaning over and lifting is also a risk. But, there are lift devices that can do the work and save people from back injuries.

Frequently caregivers and their patients do not use safe lifting techniques due to lack of training and lack of familiarity with lift devices. For more information you can visit the The Safe Lifting Portal , which also has a section called "Ask the Lift Doctor" where you can submit your questions.

Caregiver Tips - If Someone Falls

Safety comes first.

When I took classes for Certified Nursing Assistant and Home Health Aide, the teachers discussed what to do if you are working as a caregiver at someone's home, and the person you are assisting falls. If the person does not appear to be injured, you can call the local fire department for a free lift assist. If someone is injured dial 911 and ask for an ambulance.

The RN teaching the class advised us that you can call 911 to get the local fire department if you don't have the number handy to ask for the Free Lift Assist. If you have the non-emergency number for the fire department you can call that number. If you don't want to alarm the neighbors you can ask the fire department to leave the siren turned off.

In the skilled nursing facility, where I trained and worked, if someone fell we asked the person not to move. Next, we called for an LVN or Registered Nurse to check the person for injuries. Then a group of nurses and nursing assistants gently lifted the person from the floor in a manner that would avoid injury.

Sometimes people are injured from a fall, but they do not realize it at the time. A paramedic, nurse or medical professional can check people who have fallen before they are moved. The nursing school instructors taught us that moving someone who has an injury can make the injury worse or cause more injuries.

If the paramedics find there is an injury the person can be taken by car or ambulance to the emergency room.

My nursing class teachers advised us that frail seniors can have bones that fracture easily from pressure or from certain positions and their skin can be vulnerable to skin tears. They also bruise easily.

The instructors said letting the paramedics do the lifting is safer for the person who fell than doing it yourself. Lifting someone from the ground or floor could cause you to have an injury to the back, shoulders, or knees.