Child & Pet Safety for Stair lifts: Tips & Advice
Making your home a safe environment for pets & children is vital for the happiness and well being of the whole family. Stair lifts are a fantastic tool that can help those with physical impairments who struggle to navigate the stairs with maintaining Independence.
However, they can also introduce new risks to the safety of others if appropriate procedures are not followed. This article offers tips & advice on what to look out for when it comes to the safety of children & pets in the home around a stair lift.
Understanding the Risks
Its vital to understand the specific risks that are present to children and pets within the context of being around a stair lift. Children are naturally curious, which can lead to them being involved in an accident due to this.
Pets, on the other hand may not be aware of the way that a stair lift functions straight away, and are at risk of injury from getting caught by moving pieces such as the seat or aspects of the rail.
4 Safety Tips for Children
- Educate Early & Often: Its vital to teach your children about what a stair lift is used for. Ensure that children understand that the stair lift is not a toy, but an important piece of medical equipment.
- Supervision: Ensure that any children that are present in the house whilst a stair lift is in use are under careful supervision, so that accidents do not occur.
- Safety Features: Modern stair lifts come with a wide range of safety features such as automatic stop sensors and seat belts. Familiarize yourself with all safety features installed on your stair lift & double check that they are working as intended.
- Barriers: If it’s necessary, It would be worth considering the installation of safety barriers, so that young children cannot access delicate or potentially dangerous areas in and around the stair lift and the rail.
4 Safety Tips for Pets
- Training: Train your pets, and let them explore the stair lift in a safe manner, so they can familiarize themselves with how the stair lift functions so that they do not get caught in the way of it mid operation.
- Create a Safe Space: Encourage your pets to stay away from the stair lift by including multiple safe spaces for them away from the lift.
- Be Vigilant During Use: Keep an eye out for your pet, and ensure that they are not touching or climbing onto the rail mid use.
- Regular Maintenance Checks: Getting a professional company to maintain and look after your lift is a good idea, especially if your pet sheds fur often.
General Safety Advice
- Regular Maintenance: A professional should come around and maintain your lift regularly, this minimizes the chance of breakdowns or faults from occurring.
- Clear Pathways: Ensure that the stair lifts path is not blocked by anything that obstructs its natural path up & down the stairs.
- Emergency Contacts: Having emergency contacts available in the case of anything going wrong is vital to ensure that if an incident does occur, they can be contacted for assistance immediatley.
- Battery Backups: Try to get a backup battery from your stair lift installation technician, so that if the battery does fail and the stair lift goes down, the downtime will be minimal.
- Invest in Higher Quality: As with many mechanical devices, you pay for what you get. Going for a cheaper unknown brand of stair lift might save you money in the short term, but it might be lacking reliability & much needed safety features.
Conclusion
Stair lifts and greatly increase the quality of life for someone with mobility impairments that results in them struggling to navigate their home. Safety should be a priority with stair lifts, especially in a home with children & pets. With the above advice on how to make your home a safer place for them, you can nurture your loved ones and maintain stability in your household.
Taking proactive steps to ensure that safety concerns are a non issue is an intelligent approach to stair lift ownership. With a multitude of mechanical factors that are involved in a stair lifts operation, these few tips can assist in shortening the list of things that could go wrong, allowing for peace of mind and security in your home.