
A Turning Table for Margaret
Margaret has been affected by Motor Neurone Disease and now needs assistance with many aspects of day-to-day life. Her son lives with her, and she has carers who help her with a variety of tasks throughout the day.
Margaret wanted to be able to move her plate away after mealtimes and move her tablet communication device nearer, so that she could use it. Her Community Occupational Therapist, Ellis, felt that some form of a table-sized lazy Susan might work, but this was not available commercially. Ellis therefore reached out to Remap, to ask for help and was paired with engineers Graham and Catherine Wylie.
Following a discussion with Ellis where very specific measurements were given, Graham and Catherine considered how to make a suitable table. Consideration was given to fitting in with other furniture in Margaret’s room, the ease of turning the device, stability, and the ease of use by her family and carers.
Initial Design
Two table bases were bought from local charity shops, an overbed table and a cantilever type table. With these bases, two designs were made for Margaret to try, one rectangle tabletop with linear movement, and one circular tabletop with rotational movement. Graham enlisted the help of a friend, Ian, who did the necessary welding.
Graham and Catherine considered the best way for Margaret to move the table and felt that having her hands on the surface was preferable, so they made sure that the movement was as smooth and effortless as possible. A Formica top was glued in place on both tables, and minutely sloped away from Margaret to ensure that any spillages would go away from her rather than towards her lap.
For the rotating table, a suitably heavy-duty ball bearing and roller bearings were sourced online, and a tabletop was cut from MDF and routed to a circular shape with two areas for the plate and the tablet to go. This tabletop was smaller and could fit between the arms of Margaret’s recliner chair. It was made to be 61cm high but, like the over bed table this could be adjusted if necessary.

First Impressions
A meeting with Ellis was arranged and the tables demonstrated to Margaret and her son, prior to a home visit being done.
Margaret and her son immediately preferred the round table as they felt that it was more easily used, possibly as it was slightly smaller and more in keeping with the other furniture in the room.
Margaret managed to move the table easily in both directions. However, she had some difficulty when trying to use a bowl and spoon as there was some movement with the table and, when she went to recline her chair, her feet caught on the legs.
Discussion followed about ways of solving these two issues, along with possible methods of stopping objects moving on the table.

Final Adjustments
The circular tabletop was removed from the cantilever table and welded to the overbed table, to prevent Margaret from catching her feet.
Graham also added a small magnet and steel plate to the tabletop and fine-tuned the roller bearings and the ball bearing in order for the tabletop to run very smoothly with just a light touch. The magnet meant that the table could be stopped in one position, making the use of a spoon and bowl steadier but, if it was too hard for Margaret to initiate the movement again, it could be made easier with a little bit of tape over the magnet.
The Dumfries paediatric Occupational Therapy department kindly supplied some dycem matting as a non-slip device for use by Margaret, which worked well.
A further home visit was arranged, and the table was set up. The first thing Margaret checked was that she could recline her chair without getting her feet caught, which she could.
She and Ellis were very pleased with the table and were keen to trial it at home. Margaret felt that it helped her and had potential to allow her to access her tablet much more easily. This will hopefully allow her to more independently access her activities, reading and games, along with communication.




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