Hi, my parents are now both vaccinated and after so long confined to the home would like to get out and about a bit together on their own and regain some of their independence. One of them has dementia and mobility issues though so needs to be in a wheelchair that someone else manages as they couldn’t push themselves or control a motorised chair. The other though is not strong enough to push the chair anymore so is hoping we can find some sort of motorised chair that is controlled by the person directing the chair. Does anyone have any suggestions of a way forward? Thanks for any help:-)
You can definitely have a motorised chair where the controls are only usable by the chair pusher, (who then wouldn’t need to push). You would of course need a pusher for each chair/parent.
To the best of my knowledge wheelchairs are not something that’s means tested - we’ve always failed any means test and have to pay for everything that’s means tested, but not a wheelchair, my wife currently has an electric chair which would have cost about £5k at full retail.
I suggest that you get in touch with Social Services.
You can get a wheelchair from the OT dept but you can only get anything motorized from a dealer out of mobility or Motability,
You need to look at Attendant control wheelchairs. The above link is for understanding of such product. Not a recommendation of a company or chair.
Some Local Authorities can provide such equipment. But some have cut back because of funding.
Too bad law doesn’t allow the mobility scooters in uk that have two seats. There are such things and I think that would be perfect to become independent this way. Sad to say, law is behind on this, because DVLA won’t register such vehicle for class 3. According to them, a mobility scooter has to be “one person only”. It’s irritating, because people who care about others could use this to take them on short trips. Of course, as they don’t recognize this as class-3 it is not allowed on pavement either…
What I mean is this kind of mobility scooter:
Technically they could use that on private property, but I don’t think that’s what full freedom or independence is about or what you look for. It is something you could consider though, maybe the law finally change and allows us to register those.
Old thread, locked.