Move is in the heart 💓
2 GoodGymers made their way to help an isolated older person in Ealing.
- Saturday, 24th of August 2019
On paper, my mission in Ealing with Andy for Mr H was very simple: Mr H has visibility issues and uses a couple of walking sticks to navigate through his home. He's been falling a lot as he can't see obstacles that well. To help mitigate against this, his carers came up with a plan to rearrange some of his bedroom furniture to give him more space to manoeuvre in. This was sent it to GoodGym to implement.
We were greeted at Mr H's by both Mr H and his son, Junior. After introducing ourselves, we ran through the move with Mr H and Junior before we touched anything. In short, we were to remove a chest of drawers from near a window in Mr H's bedroom to the living room. The newly vacated space would then be filled with a wardrobe that was originally on the opposite side of the room (near the bedroom door). This would free up space for Mr H's mobility scooter to be moved further into the room (and away from the door), allowing him extra room to navigate to bed with his walking aids.
Mr H immediately protested: He didn't like the idea of having his chest of drawers in the living room. So, we talked to Mr H and his son, and came up with a new plan. The only difference between them was that the chest of drawers would remain in the bedroom, and simply be moved along the window wall.
Once everything was decided, Mr H drove his mobility scooter out of the room (I'm firmly of the opinion that he should pimp his ride with LED wheel lights and a boom box), and we got to moving. Within minutes, everything was in its new position and we were asking Mr H to reverse back in (which he did like the pro that he is).
Mr H was happy with the rearrangements. Junior was happy with the rearrangements. We were happy with the rearrangements: Home is where the heart is, after all, and it was great to be able to both follow the function of instructions (reducing the likelihood of Mr H falling by making more space near the doorway) while also making enough allowances to personal preference to keep Mr H's house as his home.
It was fun working with you, Andy - enjoy the rest of the bank holiday weekend! 😄
Report written by Elizabeth
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Sounds like a very successful mission - glad that you came up with a plan that suited everyone. Good job team!
Thanks, Amy! :)
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