When does a Person need Walking Aids?

Old age is considered the predecessor of death. A person after enjoying various stages of his life becomes old. With the progressing age, the body becomes weak, and mobility gets compromised too.

Most of the elderly suffer from a familiar feeling of helplessness. Old age is the mental setback that takes place when one realizes that movement has turned restricted plus difficult. The problem becomes all the graver when a person gets affected with some ailments or meets with an accident, thus, resulting in a kind of disability. Under such circumstances, walking aids or mobility aids turn highly handy because they provide the support plus mechanism which is missing from an older adult’s body.

The wheelchairs are the most commonly used walking aids for elderly. These wheelchairs provide the seniors the freedom to move around comfortably and efficiently. Some wheelchairs are automatic whereas some are operated manually. The automatic wheelchairs help a person with downward and upward movement, and this enables a person to put and lift things easily. These chairs are fixed with trays, and on that, the elder people can carry their belongings from one place to other places easily. Walkers are considered other helpful mobility aids as they encourage the older adults to move easily in their surroundings.

Types of mobility aids

The typical kinds of walking aids are:

1.    Canes – Canes are considered similar to crutches as they support your body’s weight plus help in transmitting the load from your legs to your upper body. However, canes take lesser weight off your lower body compared to crutches plus place more pressure on your hands and wrists. The typical kinds of canes are White canes, Quad canes, and Forearm canes.
2.    Crutches – The crutches are helpful for transferring the weight from your legs to your upper body. You can use crutches singly or in pairs too. They help to keep your body upright, and it may be used by people suffering from permanent disabilities or short-term injuries. There are many types of crutches, like underarm crutches, forearm crutches, and platform crutches.
3.    Walkers – Also recognized as Zimmer frames, walkers are developed from the metal framework having four legs for providing support and stability to the user. These walking aids are either equipped with glides or wheels on their base.
4.   Mobility scooters – Mobility scooters are the same as a wheelchair. These are especially beneficial for those people who don’t have flexibility or upper body strength to make use of a manual wheelchair.
5.   Guide dogs – These dogs are particularly trained service animals that are used to escort visually impaired or blind people. Additionally, having a guide dog can have physiological, psychological, and social effects on a person.

Some precautions to follow

• Though walking aids for elderly provide many benefits to the users, yet they must be appropriately used for avoiding the danger of an accident.
• Excessive or improper use of walking aids may result in many types of injuries.
• According to the research, many users aren’t appropriately trained to use these walking aids, as only one-third of people get training for the use of a walking aid.
• It is highly essential for people to seek an appointment with a physician or a physical therapy to learn the methods of using the walking aids.