When it comes to stair lifts, they are not the type of mobility aid that you find yourself changing very often.

Unlike some mobility aids that a user might change a few times over the years, as a stair lift is fitted and requires the rails being permanently in place, until a household no longer needs to have one in place it means that many people might have the same one installed for a number of years.

Saying that, some people are long term users of a stair lift and so might have tried a few different ones over the years and have been able to experience the different makes and models available.

If you have tried out a few over the years, you may have grown to like a particular make and might even prefer to stick to that specific name, even though you might upgrade over the years.

Do you find yourself preferring a particular one?

Everyone gets nervous about doing something for the first time, even when we dont want to admit to others that we feel a little nervous about something  thats completely new to us, inwardly we still feel that bit of anxiety.

The fact that you feel that way though is actually a good thing, it just means that you are concerned enough about doing things properly and that you care for your own safety and that of others too.

Before long, any nervousness soon fades as you get used to using your mobility scooter and become comfortable with it.

Until you get used to it though, it can help to follow a bit of advice which i will provide here in order to help build your confidence so that you become fully comfortable with using your mobility scooter.

Also remember that how long it takes will differ for each person, it might just take all of 5 minutes for you to lose your nerves, a day or maybe a few weeks, thats fine, because eventually you will no longer feel nervous about using your mobility scooter and can get on with enjoying the mobility and independance that a mobility scooter provides.

Follow these tips and advice to lose your nervousness and build your confidence using your mobility scooter.

1. Familiarise yourself with the controls and how to stop the mobility scooter before using it.

2. Have an experienced person with you to help get you used to using your mobility scooter, if at all possible.

3. If you can, have a relative or friend take you and your mobility scooter to a quiet, flat grounded area that will allow you to practice using the mobility scooter, possibly a disused area of tarmac that is without debris.

4. If its your very first time, try to choose a dry day so that you dont have the worry of wet ground to concern yourself with.

5. Make sure that you feel comfortable, make any necessary adjustments, being positioned properly and being comfortably seated can make a huge difference to how in control you feel.

Once you have got used to the basics and get used to the feel of the steering, the speed and starting and stopping safely, then its a good idea to practice things like going from pavements onto the road to cross over a road and back onto a pavement on the other side.

Do this when you feel more confident and more at ease, dont force yourself to do anything too soon and before you’re really ready to.

You might suprise yourself though and be comfortable and confident using your mobility scooter sooner than you expect to.

You might have been living with a disability for many years now or maybe you have recently become disabled but with both of these its quite possible that the rooms within your home are not planned out in the most convenient way for you, while still being comfortable enough for any other members of the household.

Understandably, many homes have limited options in the way that you can arrange furniture so that you’re happy with the room while getting the most from the space that the room provides.

Its not always down to rooms being small either, sometimes a room can be shaped so that it will only provide you with a couple of options to position furniture.

There are homes though that may have the potential to make mobility much easier for you if you spend a little time planning so that furniture is positioned for the whole room to be comfortable for all that will want to use that room, while still allowing you to pass through the room easily, and to reach anything that is important to you and that needs to be close by to aid you with your mobility.

Ideally you should look at each room of your home, including hallways, entrances, even a conservatory as of course this is an extension of your home.

Although you might not have considered checking each room to see how you can improve the layout for your mobility at home, it might be the case that after you have checked your home that there is nothing that you can actually have moved around or removed and this is fine

It may be that you already have furniture and items positioned quite well or that the room just doesn’t lend itself very well to a shuffle around of things and that you’re best off leaving things as they are.

This may be true for one of your rooms, some of the rooms or the whole home, but its worth the small amount of time that it takes to see if theres any way that you can have the layout of the room so that mobility for you is as easy and obstacle free as it can be.