Why is fitting necessary after a new wheelchair is delivered? - Laura Wehrli, PT

Properly fitting a wheelchair first should start with an evaluation by a PT or an OT doing what we call a “mat evaluation.” And the therapist will get the patient onto a mat and assess their flexibility—how flexible are their legs, their trunk, their arms, and how do we have to set up this chair to put them in the best posture to keep them the most upright, and most stable and functional in the chair?—and so, you should start with a mat evaluation. And then they should be evaluated in different types of wheelchairs, whatever they’re looking at—manual chairs versus power chairs—they should actually try those wheelchairs, and not just a prescribed wheelchair based on what someone thinks would work for them. It’s very important that they actually try that chair, try several chairs, and then have them appropriately fitted to those, and the chair should be ordered—funded hopefully—and then fit to them specifically by a skilled therapist.