Page 14 - Mobility Management, September/October 2022

ATP Series
Somewhere to Go
their own. “We have a case study on the Seating Dynamics site of Phillip. Philip had a non-dynamic seating system, but he rocked so much of the time that his back looked like a dynamic back, because it was so worn out. I was just hoping we could get him something before his back exploded because I was afraid he’d hurt himself. That’s a real risk, too, because if I’m moving and my back cane goes snap, what do you think could happen?
“He had worn all those round holes
in the frame into big ovals. And when I looked on the back of his chair, there was this fine silver powder. It was aluminum dust from all the force damaging the frame. So the back was moving. But first of all, it wasn’t helping him come back because there was no dynamic compo- nent. He was destroying the chair. There were big chunks missing out of his solid tires. I asked the therapist why, and they said they’d put on the wheel locks because
he’d rock so hard that the chair would move across the room. He had so much force that, as he was rocking, he would break the tire off under the wheel lock repeatedly, and then they’d move the tire and lock it again.”
Provided with a dynamic seating system for his new chair, Philip was much happier, Lange said. “He can rock, and he loves it. No more chunks out of the tires, no more bouncing across the room with his chair, and he’s not agitated. He’s very happy that he can move. And some of the staff at his residential facility were saying, ‘Is it okay to let him rock all day?’ Because you can lock out the back on most of these [systems].
“Sure, there’s not a problem with rocking. If he rocks, it’s because he’s feeling that need to rock at that time. And if he stops, that’s fine. The back will just stop moving because he has. You don’t have to run over and lock it. When he decides ‘I
need to rock again,’ it’s ready to go.”
Matching Dynamic Options
to Varying Needs
The types of dynamic components needed varies from client to client.
“Some individuals, probably [people who rock], need back and knee [move- ment],” Pedersen said. “Or I’ll have some- body that’s extending their foot a lot; then I’m focusing on dynamic movement at the footplate.
“With [clients who rock], a lot of times it’s just [affecting] the back. [For someone who bangs their head], I might need to really provide a lot of stability so they
can move their head back and forth, and everything else is stable, and they’re not sliding out of the chair. But I can’t stabi- lize their head. That [head positioning support] has to give, or they’re going to hurt themselves or they’re going to break the chair.”
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