The importance of assistive devices: supporting people to live until they die
At the VP-Net 2006 Spring Institute Carol Gill illustrated the problem of a lack of awareness of the importance of assistive devices in maintaining hope and meaning in people’s lives as their impairments accumulate. She used an example from her experience providing psychological support to people at the end of their life in a hospital. She used an anecdote about a man living in the hospital in the end stages of cancer who requested an electric wheelchair as his strength declined. She explained that his goal was to remain as active as possible and to be able to go out into the community. His request was turned down on the basis that it was not cost-effective, and the staff believed he should be using a manual wheelchair to keep his strength up. She said "He was just absolutely devastated emotionally by the turn down and the reason was because the one thing he wanted to do until he died was go out in the community and take walks with his wife side by side not her behind him pushing."
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