Learning Objectives
- The participant will be able to describe clinical indicators for canes and crutches.
- The participant will be able to describe clinical indicators for walkers.
- The participant will be able to describe clinical indicators for gait trainers.
Introduction
Augmented mobility is categorized into three main subcategories: walking aids, which includes canes and crutches, walkers, and gait trainers. All of these either "augment" or assist someone's ambulation. A client may have decreased strength and needs something to provide some additional support. These devices sometimes take the amount of strength that would be required in the legs and transfer some of it to the upper body. These devices can be helpful for people who have decreased balance or a high risk of falling by providing stability for them. Our goal, when prescribing these devices for clients, is to prevent the client from falling, as this can lead to injury. Our clients may have difficulty getting up from a seated position and these devices can help with this as well. These devices may increase either the distance that a client can move themselves or the efficiency of that movement, decreasing the amount of work that the client needs to put into the task. Overall, we want our clients to be as independent and safe with mobility as possible.
By getting this person upright, we are also providing strengthening and dynamic weight-bearing. This is particularly true of gait trainers. Gait trainers are a unique area of augmented mobility, where our purpose may be improved mobility, but also specific therapeutic goals like strengthening and dynamic weight-bearing.
Who uses these devices? It varies quite a bit by type of device. A client who requires a cane for ambulation may have very different motor skills and needs than a client who uses gait trainer. We will get into this a little more as we look at each of these subcategories.
Augmented Mobility- Canes
The first subcategory we are going to discuss in augmented mobility is canes. We might have even used some sort of cane ourselves. A modified version of a cane is a walking stick, and this is something we might even use if we are hiking, just to give us a little more of a boost when we are climbing up that mountain or to give us a little more stability when the surface is uneven. Just as we might use a walking stick when we are hiking, a cane provides a similar goal for the clients who use them.
A cane is generally a type of vertical pole with some type of the handle. The client typically holds that handle with only one hand and the cane then provides an assist with ambulation. There are a number of different canes out there.
