How Standing in Your Wheelchair can Change Your World

Standing power wheelchair

Having the ability to stand in your power wheelchair can help your overall health and increase your ability to complete daily tasks. It can possibly eliminate the need to use a separate piece of equipment to perform a prescribed standing program.

Potential health benefits

• Provides an independent way to achieve weight bearing through the legs multiple times a day
• Improves bladder emptying
• Promotes regular bowel function
• Enhances respiratory capacity
• Improved ability to project your voice
• Redistribution of pressure to assist in protecting your skin and tissues
• Provides stretching to your hips, knees, and ankle joints
• May help reduce spasticity through sustained weight bearing
• Reduces the need for reaching overhead and looking upward, which can decrease shoulder and neck pain.
• Improved circulation that can result in decreased edema in your lower extremities.

Functional activities

Think about if you could stand, your world just opens up and you have increased access to activities in all of your environments.

Standing improves your ability to reach for items at home, work, and/or school, and remain engaged throughout the entire day.

• Achieve higher levels of independence
• Potential independence in toileting
• Potential independence in meal preparation, household tasks, activities at work
• Decreased demand for attendant care

Social engagement

Allows you to achieve a standing position during social gatherings, religious practices, work-related engagements, national rituals (national anthem), or while delivering a speech.

• Drive your wheelchair while you stand!
• Interaction with the world around you in a standing position

Click here to learn more about Landon's journey to standing with the F5 Corpus VS.

This information comes from the Permobil Clinical Education team, which consists of a group of Occupational and Physical Therapists. Click here to learn more about Permobil clinical education team.

This blog is sponsored by Permobil.