Increased Confidence When Standing With a Stand Aid

The Challenge

Treatment of a young man with cerebral palsy. One of his goals was to be able to stand. He was unable to do this alone however, he was able to stand with assistance from a stand aid. After assessment from a variety of different companies, we decided on the most appropriate stand aid for him.

Our Suggested Solution

The stand aid was ordered and provided. We started to use the stand aid with him on a weekly basis. One of the issues that he, his father and I encountered was his confidence when in a standing position. Although he was supported by the frame and was completely secure in the stand aid, he still perceived that there was some reduced security due to there not being any handles to hold onto.

A conversation with the manufacturers of the standing aid concluded that they were unable to provide any additional support to add onto the standing aid.  I contacted REMAP (charity) to see if there was anything that their engineers could assist with to increase my client’s confidence when standing with the standing aid.

Two additional handles were fitted to the table of the stand aid with the option to move the handles forwards or backwards along the table (screw fix) depending on what my client prefers.

The Outcome

As a result ,my client now feels confident to stand and maintain this position for 20- 25 minutes at a time. He is also now able to release his arms from the handles of the frame to complete some upper limb activities, knowing that he has the additional support from the handles on the table in case he feels he requires additional support.