Experience with a stair lift as a family caregiver?

Ours was over $3,000 installed. I suppose it was worth the cost to keep me from schlepping stuff up and down all day. They will hit you up for a service policy because they claim it has no user serviceable parts. We were lucky in that there was an outlet in the stairwell.

We all live downstairs but we put one in for my wife who can't climb the stairs due to her RA. You'll need to make sure your Mother can make the tricky maneuver to get off the seat when she's at the top of the staircase. She might need help there so she doesn't twist the wrong way and send herself down the stairs. Perhaps some grab bars or handholds if she's going to use it by herself.

The track that the chair rides on should not extend into the walkway at the bottom. Ours does but the company has a feature that allows a section at the bottom of the track to fold up out of the way. It is only folded down when my wife goes upstairs.

Make sure to get the one that has a battery that will allow it to still work so you can get her down if the power goes off. Another plus is that you can use it to carry a bulky item up or down like those boxes of Christmas decorations that are stuffed into upstairs closets.

We got a stairlift for my mother, and it worked great. Just know that they're crazy-expensive. You can often buy a used one from a medical equipment supply place, but it's still expensive. A lift for a curved staircases are even more pricey than one for a straight stairway. They can be close to twice the price.

Don't buy one from a private party. You need to know exactly what length of track you need, and they aren't something most people know how to install. You need a power source at the bottom of the stairs, but that's not a big deal. The medical supply place we bought ours from even brought along an electrician to install the electric socket.

If you can swing the expense, I say go ahead and do it. It was important for my mom to be in her own bed at night, and near her bathroom. She had spent some time downstairs after a hospital stay several years before, and it just turned the whole house upside down. Once she was strong enough to climb the stairs again, she slept better and improved much faster.