When Should I Look At Installing A Stairlift?

The freedom of going up and down your house is exhilarating at best and overlooked at worst. When the time comes that we can neither walk up nor down—either from a disability, injury, or ultimately old age—the stairs seem like an incredible feat. However, this isn’t the end for you or your ability to become independent. Did you know that you can just as easily move from one floor to another by installing a stairlift? Yes, just like old times!

In Australia, there are many people that suffer from a type of handicap. In total, there are 4.4 million people (read more) suffering from one or two kinds of disabilities. Another statistic from a couple of years ago reflected 16% of the total Australian population are aged 65 years and older. The thing elderly people have most in common are mobility issues that prevent them from moving about their respective houses. For you, as a homeowner, family member, or an elderly citizen yourself, is it time to install a stairlift in your home? 

1. Breathing Difficulties Are Present

One sign you’d be taking into consideration would be health problems that get exacerbated with taking the stairs. Exercise-induced asthma, COPD, and other respiratory diseases that can be escalated by stress and strenuous activities are just some of the conditions that can warrant you to install this device in your home. This situation can apply to both younger and older family members, as chronic and acute respiratory illnesses don’t discriminate against their victims in age or gender.

2. You/A Family Member Is Disabled

Having a disability most likely means a physical handicap. Being in a wheelchair or being unable to leave your bed can feel confining, leaving you with a loss of autonomy. Going up or down the stairs at this point might seem like a pointless hope. However, Stairlifts have safety belts that make sure their riders don’t fall off the chair, and can carry someone more than 5x its weight. You can certainly go about just as easily as you did before with this device.

3. Joint Pains/Painful Knees

There are a lot of disabilities that may not be as drastic as confining someone to a wheelchair or bed, but instead cause such intense pain that walking—much less taking the stairs—is impossible. One of these conditions is Osteoarthritis, which happens to elderly people mostly. It’s the degeneration of the cartilage that cushions the upper and lower bones of your legs caused by misuse or overuse throughout the years. This disease robs many seniors of their usual physical activity and chores. 

Osteoarthritis, sadly, does not have a cure. The long term treatment is drug therapy and pain management. One of these management’s would include having a stairlift for easy and painless mobility.

4. Back Pain

Considerably the tamer of the aforementioned reasons, back pain can still pose a difficulty when taking the stairs. Lower back pain is one of the most difficult types of back pain and can be the type to give both seniors and young people a hard time climbing up and down. Luckily, stairlifts aren’t just made for the elderly, but any range of age suffering from disabilities.