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5 Wheelchair Safety Tips
By Heather Brown
January 16, 2015
Wheelchairs are useful mobility vehicles that help individuals move around with ease. They work wonderfully for the elderly, disabled and ill patients for getting around. However, when wheelchairs are misused or not well-maintained accidents can occur that causes minor to serious injuries. When using a wheelchair some safety tips need to be in mind.
#1 Learn Proper Brake Use
Anytime you are parking your car somewhere you place on the brakes to prevent from moving and causing an accident. With a wheelchair, you must do the same thing. The brakes are designed to keep you from moving around while you are trying to stay put. The brakes should also be put on when you are trying to go from the bed to the wheelchair safely or the chair the bed. If the breaks are not, on when you are trying to get into bed or out of bed, you could fall or the patient your helping could end up with an unnecessary injury, which could have been avoided.
#2 Maintain the Wheels
If you notice the wheels on your wheelchair are broken or flat it is time to get them repaired. Trying to move around in a wheelchair with broken wheels could lead to an unwanted injury such as the wheelchair tipping over or clasping.
#3 Avoid Sidewalk and Road Curbs
When using your wheelchair outside on sidewalks or near roads it is important to stay about from curbs. Getting to close to a curb could cause you or patient using the chair to become stuck, or worse have the wheelchair tip over causing serious injury.
#4 Stay Away from Staircases
Staircases are a huge no, no! Never try going down a flight of stairs in a wheelchair. This could cause severe injury or even death. Instead, get assistance getting down the staircase or use an elevator to get to the floor you need to be on. After, all elevators where designed to help wheelchair riders to get from one floor to the next with ease and safety.
#5 No Reaching
If you find something is out of your reach while in a wheelchair, never move to edge of the wheelchair seat or use your wheelchair as a step stool to reach what you need to. This could cause you to fall, or have the object your are trying to reach fall on top of you. Instead, ask for help.
Thanks for mentioning how you should refrain from leaning over the edge of your wheelchair since doing so can result in falling over. My grandmother tends to leach forward in her wheelchair whenever she tries cooking her own meals for dinner on weekends, and I’d like to find a way to keep her secure. Maybe I can find a restraint that will keep her safe.