House adaptions - lifts

Elo

Our son is 4 (weighs 16kg) and has quadriplegic CP. We're in the process of adapting our house and are interested to hear about other people’s experiences with through-floor lifts. We’re considering waiting a few years to get a lift installed and continuing to carry our son up and down stairs in the meantime, as don’t want to give up the space yet.

We wondered what your thoughts and recommendations might be on what age / weight you think a lift would be necessary? Any thoughts or advice on lifts in general would be much appreciated. Thanks!

John Morrow

We had a house adapted for our daughter when she was 5 all was great untill she grew up and got a new comfy chair ( symmetric chairs) that would not fit in the through floor lift so we had to keep the old one in the lift and swap her over to take her upstairs for about 3 or 4 years , then we had to battle the council for roughly 6 years to get a extension on the house for a shower room and storage room for her equipment and nappies (they wanted to build a shed for them) , the extension has been up 2 years the lift constantly break's down (Terry's lifts) the shower room was supposed to have a sink sluice to wash her soiled clothes in they fitted a bedpan sluice and forgot the plumbing for the washing machine . the building is level access at the rear they put the rainwater channel at the side of the building instead of in front of the rear door and cocked the ramp at the front up creating a trip hazard on the hard standing for the car to ramp . watch them like a hawk check the plans thoroughly go to a disability access consultant we used them as advocates too .

abstractLucas

We've been living in a (housing association) bungalow since our son was little, and are now in the process of moving into our own house (once the adaptations are done!). As far as when is the right time to get a lift, I would honestly say that there are pros and cons of doing it either sooner or later. As I'm sure you're already aware, these kids of ours tend to get bigger, and when you know you're looking at long term manual handling you really need to make sure you take care of your own health, because if you seriously put your back out you will have problems for years and years. The sooner you have a lift installed the sooner your child will get used to it, more of an issue when you are juggling learning difficulties along with physical needs (as my son is). With the place we're moving to (within the same city) we've chosen to have his bedroom downstairs, so he can access it independently, though of corse that has implications re keeping an eye/ear on him at night. This was partly because of the space involved too - his bedroom and our living room would otherwise have lost a big chunk of space to a through floor lift, and you do hear horrible stories of people having problems with them. One quick thought - if you will be funding the lift through a disabled facilities grant the legislation does state that the grant can include money to pay for a servicing contract, to keep the equipment working properly for as long as possible. Chances are your council won't tell you that though, so it does pay to be on the ball. Also worth considering things like a shower toilet (Google closomat or gerberit) and spend some time being really honest between yourselves about what you think you will need long term for your child (and for yourselves as carers).
Not sure if any of that will have helped, but do come back with any more questions - my son is 14 and has a unique chromosome disorder / epilepsy / sld / bilateral ddh / part time wheelchair user /scoliosis / haemophilia etc etc etc! He weighs about 55kg and my back is shot because I was adamant I was fine lifting/carrying him for longer than I should have!
Lucas