Spinal Cord Injuries & Mobility Issues: Guidance, Caretaking, & Financial Assistance:
April 21, 2016 | 9:21 am | By Pants Up Easy
Consider all the assistance devices, guidance and support services, and personal care necessities that a spinal cord injury (SCI) or mobility challenged person needs in order to live independently within their community.
Every wheelchair user is different in their injury, their level of care needed, and their household needs. Some wheelchair users will need little or no personal care, but will need assistance with domestic duties, while some with high cervical injury can require 24-Hour care.
Having a caregiver is an absolute. Here are just a few tasks caregivers perform for their patients:
Community Transportation: Assistance and help transporting patients to and from appointments, errands, visits with family, etc.
Personal Care: Showering, toileting, transferring, feeding.
Domestic Services: Meal preparation, shopping, cleaning, and laundry.
Household Support: Gardening, home cleaning, home maintenance.
Nursing: Medication.
Respite: For time spent away from home.
Other: Childcare and workplace or education support.
Equipment and medical supply essentials run the gamut, and may include: manual or power wheelchairs with battery chargers, portable ramps, hoists, pressure relief cushions, shower chairs, catheters, adjustable beds, air conditionings, ventilators, physiotherapies, home automation (possible voice controlled), computers, modified vehicles.
In other words, being confined to a wheelchair can be extremely costly.
The question for anyone newly injured or who has recently become paralyzed is usually: How do I pay for these necessary tools and services to maintain my quality of life?
Most forms of assistance for individuals with disabilities will come from charitable organizations or government assistance programs, rather than grants from foundations.
But here are a few other organizations that can also help people find financial assistance:
Home Based Primary Care (HBPC) – Mission is to “Empower Veterans and the Nation to rise above the challenges of aging, disability, or serious illness.”
The Chanda Plan Foundation – Offers financial assistance for persons with disabilities so they can have access to integrative therapies. This foundation helps those who are otherwise unable to access due to lower incomes.
Friends of Man – Friends of Man helps people of all ages with a large variety of needs, such as: Mobility Equipment, Medical Equipment and Procedures, Hearing Aids, Dentures, Glasses, Basic Needs (Clothing for Children, Food), Short-term Daycare, Prescriptions, Cobra/Health Insurance – and more!
DisabilityBiz.org – (a nonprofit organization) Provides full resources and consulting services to people with disabilities who are starting up or running a small business.
Pants Up Easy is also available to some via the VA, just be sure to provide your doctor and/or therapist with Pants up Easy’s Government Capability Statement. If you have additional questions, contact us by email: EZgov@PantsUpEasy.com.
Pants Up Easy’s products are available through our dealer network. We also have special pricing available when you purchase directly from us. Contact us at info@pantsupeasy.com, or click the Quick Inquiry button for more information about pricing or for a list of dealers.
There are so many other organizations that can help those who need this extra boost of assistance. Maintaining a quality of life is crucial to a person with a spinal cord injury. By helping to reduce their financial burdens, guiding them towards independance, and making their lives less challenging, will all be factors that produce positive results.
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