Who has added one, and what are your thoughts? My mom and nearly disabled sister live in an older home, plaster walls. I think the stair lift chair would possibly stretch their ability to stay in the home for a year, maybe two, if my mom's dementia doesn't progress too quickly.
How much are they? Is there a brand that worked well for you? Is it a mistake to buy the less expensive product? I know the technology has come a long way in past years, and I also hear that it might be possible to purchase a used unit or even rent a unit.
Doing some research, it seems that many, if not most, who purchase these do so as a last-ditch effort to salvage a two-story home situation but end up moving in a year or so anyway.
Thanks for any thoughts on this!
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This allowed him to stay in his home for an extended period of time. Great.
Then his mobility went down hill. It was one thing to need the chair lift to go up the staircase inside - it's a massive staircase.
But now he couldn't do the two steps in the garage or at the front door anymore - and there were NO entries to the house that didn't have those same two steps.
So....back to the VA for assistance. I'm telling you, we would be in trouble without them. Or more to the point - he would be in a Skilled Nursing Facility without them...more on that one point in a second.
Two options - a ramp or a Lift/Elevator for him to ride his scooter up that would get him in the house. Except there was no room in the garage for the ramp. So the VA footed the bill for a Scooter Lift/Elevator. So he now has an elevator in the garage to ride up 3 feet in the air to the landing to go into the house and a chair lift to get upstairs. ( along with a whole host of other accessibility items in the house AND the scooter and lift on the back of the car)
I think you may see where I'm going with this. It is a great tool. It is an important tool. The only real issue is this - is it a temporary tool that is helpful. OR is it prolonging the inevitable and if so for how long? In his case, to be honest, all of this help is so unbelievably amazing and we are incredibly grateful...but it is only prolonging the inevitable. Before too much longer he is STILL going to have to ultimately end up in a Skilled Nursing Facility. As long the VA is providing him with props to keep him in the house (the latest is the possibility of a brand new bathtub install...sigh) he will dig his feet in and refuse to leave and we have little to no recourse to get him to leave.
So consider a few things.
1. Who owns the house and who will be responsible for putting it all back together later?
2. How much time are you trying to buy?
3. If you DO end up buying one, ensure that it has a battery back up - they may ALL have that but make 100% sure that whatever you buy has one because it's imperative that you can use it in a power outage. Make sure it has emergency operating options and not just on the seat.
4. Check the weight limits if your loved one is over a certain weight, also check the height options for the seat if they are losing height or struggle to get on higher seats.
5. Check the speed settings
6. Check into how the model is anchored.
7. Find out what the removal and disposal options are for later.
8. Find out how much maintenance costs, repairs etc.
Consider what it is you are trying to accomplish. So many times we are trying to keep our loves ones in their homes. There is nothing inherently wrong with that. BUT, at what cost? When I look at my MIL's beautiful home - her immaculate home that she painstakingly decorated, she is rolling over in her grave at what it has become and how it has been utterly destroyed in an effort to keep him in it. That sounds harsh, but it has been gutted and turned into a Skilled Nursing Facility. The VA asked this week if we could remove walls....At what point does it just become foolish?
Mind you, it isn't only people with dementia who confidently try to launch themselves out of the landing window when they mean to head down to the hall - the rule is: it's always the wrong button first. Fortunately the manufacturers know their customers, and I haven't yet seen a stairlift that allowed you to break yourself or it in this way.
I haven't either yet seen a client use the seat belt despite my prompting, but then again there hasn't been occasion to - not one person has attempted to stand or wriggle off the seat during the journey. The commonest error is stopping too soon with intention to walk down the last few steps, but this is simple impatience (the lifts do go at a snail's pace) and easily corrected.
Disadvantages:
Yes, many people leave it far too late, and the difficulty is then often in mobilising to the lift and getting safely onto it. If they'd bought one before they might have saved themselves some wear and tear around the hips and knees.
The lifts do need maintenance and can break down. As far as I know (as with bath chairs) there are safety features which mean that a lift in need of maintenance or repair won't begin a journey: I've seen very cross clients who were stuck upstairs or downstairs, but none (so far) sitting there mournfully singing "it's not at the bottom, it's not at the top, so this is the stair where I always stop..." when I arrive to help with lunch.
It is extremely important that somebody willing to be permanently on call knows how to get the lift up or down manually (they all have a crank handle of some sort, but too often people don't familiarise themselves with the instructions. Make going through this properly part of the installation deal). Even good stairlift providers may not be able to attend a service call out the same day.
When you look at the controls, make sure the finishing touches really are intuitive and user-friendly. For example: you've ridden to the top, and the lift has stopped. Do you now use the same control to turn the chair and stand? - or is there a lever that you have to pull or press? Is it comfortable to operate? Is it friendly to arthritic hands and stiff shoulder joints?
Make sure the seat is deep enough front to back for the person to sit securely, and the foot rest is easy to lower and place feet on, so the person isn't going to perch at the front and riffle his knees or toes all the way down the banister posts.
Make sure it's easy to clean. Reasonably, anyway. There are too many folding parts for it to be really really easy.
Buy from a reputable company partly because it's at least half true that you get what you pay for, but also because you don't want to be buying servicing or parts for a machine that nobody else has ever heard of.
What does your mother think of the idea? Has she ever used one before, or does she have friends who've got one?
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2. Yes, buy used. They're ridiculously expensive, especially if you have a curved staircase or one that turns at a landing halfway up. Buying used helps -- a little. Check with a medical supply store. That's where we got my mom's lift.
3. The technology isn't really advanced on these things -- they go up and they go down. They aren't too complicated. Get an Acorn brand, as it seems to be the best one and has service people everywhere.
4. Once you no longer need it, call the place where you bought it, and chances are they'll buy it back. They won't give you much, (we bought for nearly $3,000 and sold for $300), but they should come out and uninstall it with virtually no damage to the stairway. Except for the electric socket we had to install at the foot of the stairs, you'd never know a stairlift had been there.
The stairlift allowed my mother to have an extra year in the house, so it was a godsend. The not-so-great part was that the staircase was fairly narrow to begin with, so it took up a good chunk of the space. Unfortunately, my dad passed away upstairs, and the mortuary couldn't get a gurney past the lift, so they had to carry his body downstairs by hand. (We didn't watch.)
Probably the same expense would be involved in making a downstairs bathroom accessible with a walk in shower and an ADA height toilet.
the problem with a stair lift is it virtually cuts the usable stair space in half and if it is an older house how wide is the stairway? And how steep is the stairway? Some older houses have very steep stairs.
Dementia does not lend itself well to staying at home for any great length of time. And, like Geaton said, how is your 'nearly disabled sister' going to help mom onto this chair and then make sure she STAYS SEATED on said chair as it carries her up and down the stairway??
Seems like a huge investment to extend their stay in this house for a very short period of time. That money may be put to better use placing both of them in managed care where they'll be a whole lot safer!
Good luck!
That's just someone being lazy and not caring about a house that isn't theirs.
Have you called the company that makes it to see if it is recommended for someone with dementia? Would your "nearly disabled sister" be able to get your mom (who has dementia) safely in and out of the chair when at the top? Will your mother cooperate in sitting in it?
What benefit is there to keeping your mom cloistered in her home for 1 more year? My MIL is in LTC on Medicaid in a very nice facility where there are activities, outings, events, visiting pets and musicians and way more opportunity for social interaction. Maybe your "nearly disabled sister" needs a break sooner rather than later.
My my mother and sister both want to try to stay in the home for awhile longer, and I am planning a Comfort Keepers aide or similar to help with things for now.
I am new to this forum and am trying to learn about how to finance an assisted living situation; there is very little money, especially for the two of them. It seems memory care is close to $9,000 a month. That would totally deplete her savings in under two years. I am reading here about how to transition into Medicaid. This is all very sudden, as my dad, while in bad health, died somewhat unexpectedly. It is hard to mourn and plan.