Reducing Gap of a Bed Lever
Our client Sarah, a young lady with Cerebral Palsy, needed a bed rail but was afraid of getting her arm stuck between the bars.
REMAP Retired Occupational Therapist and Maker Virginia Tite provided a solution.
The Challenge
Sarah’s Occupational Therapist told REMAP Sarah once unintentionally put her arm through the gap in one of the levers. She hoped REMAP could suggest an alteration to the bed lever which would reduce the entrapment risk. She believed that a similar mesh-type covering had already been made for another client with a similar bed lever.
The solution
The solution was to make a close-fitting slip-over cover to the lower part of the rail, held in place with a flap at the top fixed in place with Velcro and two strings at the base to attach to the bottom bar. I used slightly stretchy washable jersey material, used double for robustness. The stretchiness improved the fit.
The result looked neat and the part of the rail she needed to hold was still exposed.
She needed 2 rails so I made 2 covers.
The benefit
Sarah can now safely use her bed levers without fear of injury or getting stuck.
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