Wheelchair Industry in 2021: A Closer Look at Why the Demand Has Surged!
Imagine your parents getting elderly, maybe dad can’t drive anymore or mom needs a walker or wheelchair to get around. Their disabilities would place additional demands or challenges on the entire family system. These demands could last for the unforeseeable future. We are all susceptible to mobility disabilities regardless of age, whether, through accidents, aging, or medical conditions. Few family caregivers are prepared for the demands of immobile people. It gets difficult for the elderly to perform trivial tasks like going up the stairs, so they mostly require assistance with virtually everything. Even showering seems more strenuous and takes longer. The daily strain of assisting and care leads to fatigue and exhaustion, taxing the emotional and physical energy of caregivers and family members. If you face this situation in your family, your immediate instinctive reaction would be to try and save your loving mom or dad. A special Health Report from Harvard Medical School notes that loss of mobility in older adults is quite common and can have intense psychological, physical, and social consequences. Geriatrician and instructor at Harvard Medical School, Dr. Suzanne Salamon, writes; “If you’re unable to get out then you can’t go shopping, you can’t go out with your friends to eat dinner or go to the movies, and you become dependent on other people to get you places. So, you become a recluse, you stay home, you get depressed. With immobilization comes incontinence, because you can’t get to the bathroom, you can develop urinary infections, skin infections. The list goes on,”