Assistive devices: Overview

Mobility Aids:

Help you move around better in your home and community. Your physical therapist can help determine the best devices for you. Examples include wheelchairs, walkers, canes, leg lifters, ramps, and accessible vehicles.

Bathroom Safety Aids:

Lower the risk of falls in the bathroom. An occupational therapist can provide recommendations specific to your needs, including grab bars, shower chairs, non- slip mats, and raised toilet seats.

Hygiene Aids:

Increase independence with personal hygiene tasks. Examples include bidets, long handled sponges, toilet tissue aids, and hand held shower hoses.

Bedroom Aids:

Designed to help you function better in your bedroom. These may include electric beds, air mattresses, bedside commodes, overbed tables, and bed rails.

Transfer and Lifting Aids:

Increase independence, safety, and ease for caregivers. Examples include mechanical lifts, stand-assist lifts, pivot discs, gait belts, and transfer boards.

Personal Care Aids:

Simplify personal care tasks. Examples include eye drop guides, adapted nail clippers, hair washing trays, long handle combs, toothpaste dispensers, and urinals.

Dressing Aids:

Help with putting on and taking off clothing. Examples include long handled shoe horns, sock aides, dressing sticks, elastic shoe laces, and button aids.

Eating and Drinking Aids:

Improve independence with eating and drinking, addressing challenges like limited range of motion and decreased coordination. Adaptive utensils, cups, and plates can be beneficial, with an occupational therapist guiding the best choices,

Communication Aids:

Support interaction with caregivers, friends, and family. Examples include Augmentative and Alternative Communication devices (see below), text to speech apps, and communication boards.

Adaptive Technology:

Improving comfort, communication, and overall well-being, adaptive technology includes smart home systems and devices like Amazon Echo or Google Home. Environmental controls such as lighting, temperature, and security can be controlled through smartphone apps or voice commands.

Vision Aids:

Helpful for those with visual impairments. Examples include magnifying glasses, talking products, tactile markers, color-contrast items, audio books, and large print materials.

Hearing Aids:

Assist those who are deaf or hard of hearing. An audiologist can recommend appropriate adaptations which can include hearing aids, sound amplifiers, and vibrating alarms/devices.

Medication Management Aids:

Help organize and take medications correctly. Examples include pill organizers, automatic pill dispensers, and medication reminder apps.

Home Safety Devices:

Designed to improve safety at home, these devices include medical and fall alert systems, video doorbells, and motion sensor lighting.

Comfort and Support Devices:

Products for overall comfort and support, such as positioning wedges, orthopedic pillows, beverage holders, phone holders, seat cushions, and reachers.

Pain Management Aids:

Aiming to relieve discomfort, these aids include heating pads, paraffin, cold packs, aromatherapy, distraction and relaxation techniques, as well as positioning aids. A Transcutaneous Electrical Nerve Stimulation or TENS unit works by delivering small electrical impulses to the body to decrease pain. Recommend discussing with a healthcare provider prior to use.

Coordination Aids:

Designed to assist those with coordination difficulties in maintaining functional independence. Examples include built up grips, typing aids such as a stylus (a pen that interacts with touch screen technology), or a universal cuff which can be placed around the hand and holds everyday items such as cutlery, toothbrush, or a pen.