Elderly Prepping: Mobility Issues

Mobility issues are just one of a long list of special needs that the elderly commonly have. As preppers, if we have any elderly loved ones, are ourselves senior citizens or are nearing our “silver years”, then we need to include these challenges into our prepping plan.

This is the first article of a new series where we will be examining “senior issues” as they regard prepping. I’m going to be upfront with everybody on this, if we have a massive national or global “Stuff Hits The Fan”  (SHTF) event it’s going to be very, very hard on people in their silver years… we are going to lose a whole lot of them, and that’s something we need to come to terms with ahead of time.

What can we do? What can’t we do? What are the needs and challenges, and frankly… in the end… how much can we AFFORD to do.

Let’s start with an issue that’s become near and dear to my heart, mobility challenges. (OK, it’s near and not all that dear to me as I am currently wheeling around with various devices because I have a broken ankle).

I’ll finish up with a story from my personal family life that I hope will be an illustration of why it’s important that we look into these things now, instead of facing heartbreak down the road.

Mobility Issues

The ability to freely move around, walk from one room to another, up or down flights of stairs… that ability is something I think a lot of us really take for granted. 

I’ve had multiple knee surgeries and currently have a broken ankle, so limited mobility is something that is very much on my mind these days.

It is, however, a real challenge as many of the elderly that we may have to care for (or may one day become) have limited mobility. Some are confined to wheelchairs, some use walkers, some are bedridden. 

Right now, we have a “safety net” of nursing homes for elderly who need more help than the typical family can provide. If the SHTF, those nursing homes may quickly turn into very, very bad places to be… so a prudent prepper needs a plan of what to do with loved ones (another part of this series will be specifically about nursing homes).

A Site Survey

A great place to start thinking about dealing with mobility issues is to survey your house.

Here are some things to consider:

• Do you have steps? If so, how many? Can you put a small portable ramp up so that people can get a wheelchair up the ramp?
• How wide are your doors. It generally takes 32 inches for wheelchairs to work easily through doors. Most doors in homes are either 23 inches or 27 inches wide. How wide are your doors?
• Can a wheelchair get into your bathroom.
• Do you have a walk-in shower?
• Do you have any lift bars around your toilet stool area?
• Can somebody in a wheel chair reach critical items in the house
• Is there a fire extinguisher handy that can be reached from a wheelchair?
• Is your sidewalk level and even?
• Is there carpeting in the entrance way?
• What areas are accessible without stairs
• Is there a bathroom that can be used by a mobility limited person?

These are just a few items to think about, here’s link to a much more extensive list that shares more information on a home survey (some of it is quite a bit beyond basic prepping, but it does provide food for thought).

Mobility Devices To Have On Hand

Here are several mobility devices to keep on hand. We recommend buying large, heavy duty versions of each of these, because you never know how big the person who needs the device will be.

• At least one set of crutches
• At least one walker without wheels
• At least one walker with wheels
• A heavy duty wheelchair with hard (not pneumatic) tires.
• Walking boots in various sizes (often available cheap at thrift stores)
• At least two heavy duty canes
• A heavy duty rollator. That’s the name of a “foot scooter” (these can have many prepping uses), see picture below.

Mobility Crisis: It Can Happen In An Instant

My mother worked at a Big Box store as a department manager… she had been working there 30+ years, and loved the place. 

Even though she was in her late 70’s, she would get up every work day, get dressed, cook herself breakfast, then drive herself to work. She would clock in, do her 8 hours and then drive herself home to her 100-year-old house.

Her house was in good condition, but it was a typical 100-year-old structure with narrow doorways, front steps, etc… in fact, it was almost completely inaccessible. 

One morning, she drove herself to work, and as she was walking from her car to the front door, a careless idiot put her car in reverse and started backing up (while texting her friend) without looking. This idiot hit my mother and ran over her legs, breaking them both severely. 

From Walking To Wheelchair Bound In An Instant

That was it for our mother, she went from walking in for another day’s work (standing and walking all day) to a hospital bed and later a wheelchair… she never fully regained the ability to walk.

Due to the extensiveness of her injuries, we had no choice but to put her in a nursing home because she needed regular medical treatment and none of us are nurses or doctors. 

Mom hated the nursing home with a passion, and she was adamant that she wanted to go home, to her house. 

My sister Mammy and I were both perplexed… Mom was insistent, but both Mammy and I are realists (and preppers) and we knew that there was ZERO way that Mom could ever live in that house… the doorways were too small to get a wheelchair through, the bathroom was tiny and entirely inaccessible. Basically, we would have to hire somebody to tear out walls, build a new bathroom… honestly, it was just impossible. 

The only solution we could come up with was to buy her another house, something that was already accessible, but mother would have none of it. She wanted HER house.

Reality Rears It’s Ugly Head

There was really nothing that Mammy or I could do to change mom’s mind, we had to SHOW her how impossible it was. 

One of the first things that Mammy (who was my mothers primary caretaker, God bless her for it… and yes, I know what a Pain In The Posterior it was for you dear sister if you read this) did was buy a nice, used wheelchair van so Mammy could take her to all of her doctors appointments (there were a ton of them). 

Mom was absolutely insistent that she wanted to live out her days in her own home, so Mammy and I and her son put our heads together and came up with a plan to get together, load her up into the van, then to somehow or other get her into the house. 

We took her in the back door into her kitchen, and basically said “OK, here you are”. The door from the kitchen was too narrow for the wheelchair (remember, 32 inches wide… check your own doors, they are likely too narrow as well). 

It was heartbreaking, and it’s something I never, EVER want to go through again. In case you were wondering, she passed from cancer later in the nursing home. 

The time to plan is now

I have no idea what situation you live in, whether you own a home you plan on living the rest of your life in, are in a “starter home”, if you move a lot or if you rent… so that makes it hard for me to offer any “generic” advice other than to start picking up mobility aids for your stores. 

I just wanted to throw this out there as something to think about. 

Elderly Prepping: Nursing Homes & SHTF