Combined Bed Side Table and Standing Aid
A very sturdy bed table, bolted to the bed and doubling as a sit-to-stand aid for a visually impaired client.
The Challenge
Our client is blind in one eye and partially sighted in the other but was managing to live independently until a period of illness that left her very weak and unsteady and needing some additional equipment to see her through her recovery, which was likely to take several months.
An OT had provided our client with a number of standard issue items (toilet frame, perching stool etc.), but the bed was a particular issue being an electrically operated one owned by our client who needed to sleep with the head end raised significantly higher for a time as shown in the photo below – meaning she could no longer reach the built in bed side table she had been using prior to her illness.
It was also clear that she needed something she could use as a sit-to-stand aid but the natural position for a standand under-matress bed rail wouldn’t have been suitable, nor would it have been quite stable enough.
Finally, the sweep of the bedroom door meant the space to accomodate a table to hold the items she needed at night was quite limited, so it would need to have quite a small footprint – which would tend to rule out any normal table on stability grounds.
The solution
Engineer Ian Midgley constructed a simple but very strong compact table to the exact height required, out of offcuts of heavy timber donated by local Knaresborough joiner Bob Davis, and made up an aluminium 1/4 inch thick x 2 inch wide clamping rail to clamp it to the side panel of the bed without fouling the bed adjustment mechanism or requiring any holes to be drilled in the bed.
As a result, the table is rock solid and inspires confidence to use as a sit-to-stand aid too. Given our client’s visual impairment, a lip was added around the tabletop to keep items on it, and edge protecting foam. Edge protecting foam was also added to the lower part of the front table legs to reduce the possibility of stubbed toes.
Photos below show the way the table clamps to the bed, and the final result.
The benefit
Our client was delighted with the result which precisely met her requirements.
- Skills involved:
- Issues Addressed:
- Activities Helped:
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