Community Corner
Do You Need Crutches or a Walker to Help Recover from Accident or Illness?
This photo shows crutches and walkers collected at St. Louis HELP's recent equipment donation drive. All will be revitalized for free loans.
If you or a loved one needs crutches or a walker to recover from accident, illness or any reason, call the St. Louis Health Equipment Lending Program (St. Louis HELP) at 314 567 4700 for a free loan or see the website http://stlhelp.org/.
St. Louis HELP provides free loans of revitalized home health equipment to anyone who needs the equipment for as long as they need it. All donated home health equipment is cleaned and revitalized by the nonprofit St. Louis HELP organization before being freely offered for unconditional loan.
On Saturday, October 10, St. Louis HELP collected hundreds of donations of used home health equipment and is now reconditioning that equipment, including the crutches and walkers shown in the photograph here of St. Louis HELP’s warehouse in Olivette.
Find out what's happening in Olivettefor free with the latest updates from Patch.
”There is a huge, region-wide need for the home medical equipment that we collect, recondition and provide,” said Executive Director Laura Cannon-Singer, who founded St. Louis HELP in 2008.
“We are always working to restock our inventory of donated items to handle requests for free loans of that equipment,” she said.
Find out what's happening in Olivettefor free with the latest updates from Patch.
Examples of equipment that St. Louis HELP collects, revitalizes and loans include:
· Wheelchairs - manual and electric
· Scooters
· Walkers, Crutches and Canes
· Shower Chairs, Shower Stools, and Tub-Transfer Benches
· Portable Commodes
· Elevated Toilet Seats
· Shower, Tub and Wall Grab Bars
· Hospital Beds
· Lift Chairs
· Stair Lifts
· Reachers and Grabbers
“Medicare, Medicaid and private insurance don’t always cover the cost of renting or buying certain types of home medical equipment that people desperately need.” she said. “That’s why we provide this equipment at no charge.”
“In this way, we divert about 140 tons of used medical equipment from going into landfills every year, and nothing goes to waste. Good parts of broken equipment that we collect are used to repair other equipment. Broken wooden crutches are recycled via a tree chipping company.”
St. Louis HELP is a 501(c) 3 not-for-profit organization. (http://stlhelp.org/).