She's just out of her wrist cast from her last fall. I found her today hanging on to the hallway handrail without her walker, about 30 normal paces from her room. She just left the walker in her room. Of course she is going to fall again and has very fragile bones. Any ideas on how to get her to remember her walker? She is in an ALF.
I have to comment about losing the ability to walk once they use the wheelchair... According to all the advice I've heard my mom should be totally bedbound by now from atrophied muscles because she is in bed 20 or more hours a day, but she isn't. I have kept her 2 wheel walker and we use it almost exclusively to get around within the house with me right there supporting and guiding her. There are days when she says she can't, but at my insistence we get up and go anyway, so far so good!
I have no good ideas for you, but perhaps if I bump this post up someone else can help?
As for rollators, I used to think they were the greatest thing ever invented and couldn't understand why anyone would use an old style walker, until I tried to get my mom to use a rollator that is. It takes coordination and hand strength and to operate the brakes, as well as the mental capacity to understand. They are also usually harder to manoeuver in tight spaces like small bathrooms and between furniture. I still think they are great for more active seniors.
I really don't understand why this solution is suggested more often!
Mainly, though, I'm sorry to say, it will probably just help you know you've tried. Manage your expectations, won't you :)
I did quite a bit of looking up statistics about falls with and without walkers when trying to convince my husband to use his. I was pretty amazed to learn the high number of falls that occur and result in ER visits WHILE USING A WALKER. Well, that was a shock! Any assistive device has to be used correctly to be effective, and even the elderly without dementia apparently have a hard time learning to use them correctly. Hmmm ... at home, maybe he was just as well off wall-and-furniture walking.
I just did a very quick look right now. If anything there is more evidence now that walkers can actually cause falls. More studies have been done. This is a hugely important topic, of course. It is going to receive more and more scrutiny, I am sure.
I am just pointing this out to help you let go of any responsibility or guilt you might carry. You really are powerless to control your mother's use of the walker. And even if you had the power, that would not necessarily be enough to prevent these awful injuries she sustains.
It is Sad. It is Scary. It is Not Your Fault. And it is not Mother's fault, either.
Dementia sucks.
"The incidence of reported falls and recurrent falls was not different between device and non-device users, and the use of multiple devices or any one particular mobility device did not result in a greater incidence of falls or multiple falls than non-device users. Previous studies have shown evidence of greater risk of falling with mobility device use and walker use in particular;[11-15] these studies primarily looked within populations already using these devices without a comparison group of non-device users. The current study is reassuring in this regard. With adjustment for demographic factors, medical conditions, physical capacity, and fall history, the older adults who used mobility devices had similar incidence of reported falls as those who did not use mobility devices.
Mobility Device Use in Older Adults and Incidence of Falls and Worry About Falling: Findings from the 2011–2012 National Health and Aging Trends Study
Nancy M. Gell PhD, MPH1,*, Robert B. Wallace MD, MSc2, Andrea Z. LaCroix PhD3, Tracy M. Mroz PhD4 andKushang V. Patel PhD, MPH5
Article first published online: 6 MAY 2015
DOI: 10.1111/jgs.13393 The American Geriatrics Society
My Dad has one of the rolling walkers, my gosh you'd think I had bought him a Shelby Mustang he was so happy with this thing.... he quickly learned how to use it, as I know the hand brakes does take coordination. And there was the problem of my Mom not wanting "that thing" inside the house so Dad kept it in the garage to use when he walked down the driveway to get the mail, the basket under the seat was handy to carry the mail back up to the house.
My Mom tried the rolling walker but she couldn't figure it out... reminded me back when my Mom tried to learn to ride my 3-speed bicycle with hand brakes, oops.
Dad's caregivers at home make sure he won't get out of his recliner without that walker being right in front of him. It helps him get up. But then again, he still has upper body strength that many of us women do not have.
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