Powered chair

Hi welcome to the forum

With regard to wheelchairs you might like to order the publication that the MD Campaign produced, its amid at wheelchair services staff but is also a good guide for non professional, I’ve put the link below

Wheelchair guide

When it comes to wheelchairs its best to try as many out as possible. Companies are willing to come to your home and demostrate. You need to decide how much your willing to spend if your purchasing it. If you can’t afford a powered chair then your local NHS wheelchair services maybe able to help by providing one for you if you meet their criteria!

Many factors will determine what type of chair you might like, will it fit round your house? Will go in my car or converted vehicle?, do i need it to have a riser or an in seat tilt?

If it sounds confusing take a look round the internet at a few companies then get some home demos booked in. Most importantly don’t be pushed into buying one that isn’t right, theres nothing worse than having a new chair that you can’t use cause its uncomfortable

I’m lucky that my chair is a kit chair – that is we bought a few chairs off e-bay, picked the best parts and my husband engineered the parts together (and made some bits). It’s totally tailored in terms of I have a home made footplate, nice choice of arms, sides etc and it fits my seat/cushion system onto the main frame. It’s also narrower and shorter in dimension than most chairs on the market today – they all vary so much in terms of minimum height, length, width etc. Tried the wheelchair service but what they offered was really bad and VERY basic (but everywhere is different!). My wheelchair services still fund the cushions/supports.

If you’re buying private and have tried out some chairs – places like e-bay or disability forums/groups might have the same model going second hand and might be worth a look if you cost into it new batteries. So many things to think about!

One things I found was that I tend to spend my life at a desk/table (computer etc.) – and I tried lots of models but they wouldn’t fit underneath (and I wanted to fit under desks and tables when outside the home so couldn’t raise everything!). That was what made us decide to tailor an older model chair when they seemed to make them lower!

Best of luck :-)

So are these powered chairs is hindrance when trying to sit at a desk or dining table, would it be a good idea to get a chair that raises up and down or would that not help.

it depends on how much and where you use the chair. I have a small power chair at work that fits both desk and works cafe tables good enough. the ones I tried that raised would have been too high to sit under desks for long periods but ok for things like eating out, although I would have prefered the benefit of the riser on the chair for getting off the chair…

its worth remebering that desks and dining tables you use regular can be raised, this is something your OT will know about.

with regards being a hindrance, I beneift soo much from not having to struggle walking at work that I am able to transfer to a normal desk chair. it offers me more freedom of movement as I can slid about my work station (u shape pod) and be able to reach all my work equipment with out having to do a 64 point turn in the power chair… but the power chair is waiting for me when I need to travel about the office.

Whats a good make ie,,, invacare… etc etc do you know of any reliable sites you can point me in the right direction.. cheers

my work chair (supplied by employer via access to work) is a drive medical micro mambo(new names geo micro)http://www.drivemedical.co.uk/Catalogue/Powerchairs Does the job but is mostly an indoor chair, wouldn’t cope well in the great outdoors or kerbs. but does get a decent battery life per charge so a trip around a mall is no problem. is also very comfy.

the other chair I looked at was a pride jazzy select 6 http://www.pridemobility.com/jazzy/models.asp

my day to day run around is a small boot scooter. a pride go-go elite travellerhttp://www.pridemobility.com/scooters/models.asp not as good support as the power chair but gets around great.

The most important thing is to go to shops or trade shows and look and feel the chairs. what looks good in a picture don’t always look good in the flesh. some companies will come out the house to demo but be careful of the hard sell, and double check on the manufacturer web sight if the company is on their traders list as the warranty may not be valid if they are not an official trader

cat