Functional capacity of an individual represents the ability to perform daily life activities such as washing, bathing, dressing, and eating, as well as instrumental activities such as cooking, household keeping, shopping and solving financial problems. The quality of life can be significantly reduced as the elderly become dependent on other people in carrying out these activities. Maintaining your functional capacity is probably the essential reason for an active life. Sometimes even a small improvement in physical capacity can make a big difference for seniors, because they gain a bit of precious independence.
In this sense, there is a wide range of Colorado medical supplies near me that offer support to people with temporary or permanent locomotor disabilities as well to seniors in general. Orthopedic medical equipment and devices for home care are among the most common medical supplies, because they provide support in the process of medical recovery and offer more independence when it comes to moving around and doing things. Home care medical devices also improve the user’s quality of life by providing increased comfort and safety. These medical supplies are helpful to users and the persons who accompany them and help them with the daily activities. Here are a few examples of such products.
- Portable toilet chairs – These are medical devices specially designed to provide support to people who suffer from some diseases that prevent them from going alone to the bathroom.
- Toilet elevators or toilet platforms – offer precious support to people who cannot sit or get up from the toilet.
- Assistive walking devices, such as the upright walkers, which are medical devices used by the elderly with poor physical condition and balance issues. Some of these devices are equipped with two, three or four wheels, steel or aluminum frame, self-locking brakes for the safety of the user when being stationary, as well as a very useful shopping basket. These walking devices can also be easily folded, for transport or storage, to reduce the volume they occupy. The support handles are adjustable in height, in relation to the user’s stature, for a comfortable and safe handling. Wheeled walking devices can be used inside and outside the house, on flat ground or on slopes, in parks, shops, on the street, in wet or dry weather, at low or high temperatures. Most of them are also equipped with a resting bench, ideal during outdoor walks, allowing users to take breaks when they feel like.
- Medical bed, which helps in recovery and home care, providing more comfort to the user.
- Power lift recliners – offers support to get up or sit down to people with mobility issues.
- Medical pillows and mattresses – people with locomotor disabilities are immobilized most of the time, in bed or in wheelchairs. The soft tissues, muscles, and skin around the buttocks and coccyx are pressed between the skeleton and the bed/ wheelchair, and this sustained pressure diminishes the blood flow that nourishes the tissues. As a consequence, they degrade, the skin gets damaged and causes the apparition or pressure ulcers. Medical pillows and mattresses are designed to prevent such problems, by distributing the body`s weight over a larger surface.
