What do patients need to know about wheelchair transfers after a spinal cord injury? - Laura Wehrli, PT

I think the most important thing for someone who’s transferring in and out of the wheelchair is to have had some specific training, so they know how to control their body by lifting it, and swinging their hips using their head moving in the opposite direction of their hips. That’s the basic technique. However, some patients that I’ve worked with can tend to use more momentum than I would like them to use, so they end up throwing themselves toward their chair, or into the bed. So, I feel that it’s really important for someone to learn how to control their body in a lift—say sitting at the edge of their bed or the edge of their chair—they’d be able to lift and then swing their hips in a controlled manner, making sure to avoid the wheel if it is a manual wheelchair. Making sure that they don’t hit their hips and their skin on that wheel, and making sure that they are well balanced in the air, and that just takes some control.