Helpful Things

LOW TECH AIDS TO CARING

There are simple low tech items that can make a big difference when you are a carer. Here are a few I use. This whistle-stop tour is not intended in any way as promotional…

Plug-in Night Light

A plug-shaped light which fits in a mains socket to light automatically when darkness falls. The gentle glow in bedroom and hall provides a safer, comforting environment for night time wanderers.

Moon Lamp

Mother loves her moon lamp. A translucent orb lit by a light emitting diode (LED). I leave it switched on in her bedroom all night. 2AA batteries last about 2 weeks. It glows white, lighting night time visits to the commode, without being so bright as to keep her awake. Any similarity between the moon lamp’s surface and lunar geography is purely coincidental.

Caravan Step

Heaving your mother with your shoulder is not the most dignified way of elevating her into the back seat of your car. (Not that I actually do that…!)

My mother cannot climb my car’s high door sills unaided. This step helps, although she still has difficulty and needs to persevere.

Hand Held Mini Vac

This vac easily removes crumbs from the worktop and hob. It also likes:-

• pottery shards after a mug makes an unscheduled visit to the kitchen floor

• those nightmare polystyrene fragments that scatter when you open a delivery, and stick limpet-like to your hands, and just about everywhere else

• sleepy wasps

Extended reach grabber

My wife uses a grabber to reach cans and other items from kitchen cupboards, or from the floor. I liked it so much I bought myself one, to retrieve derailed stock from hard to reach corners of the layout in my shed.

Wireless Chime

Talking of sheds, my wife uses this wireless bell push to summon me to the kitchen.

Wheelie Shower Chair

I turn on the shower before going to fetch Mother, and wheel her back in this chair. By the time we get back the water has warmed up, so she doesn’t get cold waiting. The chair goes right into the shower so she can sit while being washed. No need to decant her to a fixed shower chair.

Britbox

What a Godsend…

Mother has watched every episode of “Vera”, “Touch of Frost”, “Doc Martin” at least half a dozen times. She says Brenda Blethyn and David Jason wear lovely hats. I’ve tried to wean her across to Midsomer Murders and Miss Marple (with many more series and episodes), but she invariably returns to Blethyn, Clunes and Jason.

2nd Toilet

No explanation (or picture) needed.

It’s essential.

In England and Wales you may be able to apply to the local council for a disabled facilities grant:- https://www.gov.uk/disabled-facilities-grants

Power Lift Wheelchair

Not cheap. We bought this one second hand.

My wife likes to help as much as she can in the kitchen. Two years ago she fell from her perching stool and broke her hip. She insisted her leg was in spasm due to her MS. After three days, she finally conceded the need to go to hospital. This house now enforces an absolute ban on perching stools.

This clever chair moves forward, backward, left or right, lifts you up, and lowers you down. It weighs an absolute ton, but turns on a sixpence. It gives my wife freedom and independence to move around the kitchen, and reach what she needs to help me.

Dishwasher

Yes, I know. Not especially low-tech. But worth a mention.

I overheard two older guys chatting, and one was saying that the first thing he did on moving to his new place was have the dishwasher removed…

Gosh. I wouldn’t have done that. I love my dishwasher. It has mysterious powers. It waits until I’m sitting down, then pushes the door open by itself, and beeps, demanding to be emptied!

It saves me a huge amount of time.

It saves me a huge amount of backache, from stooping over the kitchen sink.

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