It can be an overwhelming undertaking to ensure that your client receives the manual wheelchair that fits their needs and allows them to live as independently as possible. That’s why we developed the Manual Wheelchair Guide.
This helpful resource can help guide you through all facets of the process. Below is an overview of the guide and what you can expect to learn. After reading this guide, you’ll have a better understanding of what you need to ensure you can overcome any barriers between your client and a wheelchair that suits their needs.
What is the Manual Wheelchair Guide?
The Manual Wheelchair Guide is a downloadable PDF document for healthcare professionals and others who may be interested that introduces optimizing manual mobility for client function. It’s filled with helpful resources, guides, and tips to help you distinguish between durable medical equipment (DME) and complex rehab technology (CRT), measure for a CRT manual wheelchair, and learn more about power assist devices.
How to use the guide
If you want to identify a need for manual mobility, find the most appropriate option for your client, understand best practices for documentation, and/or appropriately measure a client for a manual wheelchair, the manual wheelchair guide is a great place to start.
Nearly every page features a tip for success in delivering a new, manual wheelchair that fits the clients’ needs perfectly, as well as understanding the overall process. You can use our clinical education team’s combined years of experience to your advantage. We will introduce you to:
- Documenting the need for a manual wheelchair
- Different types of DME and CRT wheelchairs
- Measuring for optimal wheelchair fit
- Matching features of the chair to the needs of the client
Note: All information in the manual wheelchair guide is reference material intended for healthcare professionals. It is not intended to replace the advice of a medical professional.
Helpful resources included
The comprehensive guide will help you determine what type of CRT wheelchair best fits your client's needs. For example, a tilt-in-space chair would be best if positioning is a high priority for the client and an ultra-lightweight manual wheelchair would be best when independent mobility is a priority.
It will also focus your thinking about form and function. How the client propels the chair drives the configuration of the chair. A foot propeller would need a lower seat-to-floor height, and both an upper extremity propeller and foot propeller would want their center of gravity adjusted for less rolling resistance. This guide will also expose you to all power assist devices that can help reduce shoulder fatigue and injury.
There are also plenty of illustrations that can help bring these concepts to life and add greater confidence in obtaining the correct manual wheelchair for your client. Some examples include:
Flow chart of getting a CRT manual wheelchair
From first documented need to delivery of a wheelchair requires many steps in-between. With this flow chart handy, you can start to make sense of the path you will take with the client.
Manual wheelchair comparison chart
This chart can help you understand the difference between a standard K0001 (or K1) wheelchair and an ultra-lightweight K0005 (or K5) wheelchair, and a CRT manual tilt-in-space chair. It includes approximate weights of these wheelchairs, seat depths, seat widths, weight capacity, and seat-to-floor height.
Measurement illustrations
Every measurement required to ensure the best fit for your client is included in the Manual Wheelchair Guide and illustrated with clear visuals. These 15 measurements include seat-to-floor height, front frame angle, and rear wheel axle positioning.
Upper extremity propulsion patterns
Everyone pushes their wheelchair differently and this graphic clearly shows the four stroke techniques that wheelchair users employ. It’s a great tool to help explain semicircular, single loop over, arc and double loop over propulsion patterns, and why semicircular is generally the most efficient pattern for upper extremity propellers.
Content Marketing Specialist - Permobil Americas
Before joining Permobil as content marketing specialist, Hawken was a content strategist for the nonprofit CureDuchenne, creating blogs, emails, and social media content for the Duchenne muscular dystrophy community. For most of his life before that, he worked as a journalist, writing feature stories for BioNews, and reporting on the video game beat for The Washington Post. Following his passion for writing, Hawken graduated from journalism school at the University of Southern California.