Stuck
Have you ever dreamed of being stuck in quicksand? You struggle vigorously to move through the suck of the mud. You feel your body in motion, your legs dragging one in front of the other, only to realize you have barely moved at all? Every day, every step— you struggle with moving from one room to another. Some veterans experience this struggle daily. Veterans arrive home after service with physical injuries that make their mobility a challenge, whether using a cane, a walker, or a wheelchair. Veterans and their families have to adapt to their new modes of mobility and their environments so they are not stuck, physically, as well as, metaphorically.
This feeling of being stuck was one that a caregiver shared with us to illustrate what her family members experienced. This caregiver, a mother of five, came to us in desperate need of redoing the flooring throughout her home. The family had received a mortgage-free home from an organization that provided foreclosed homes to veterans, but the home was not adapted to the veteran or his family’s needs. The veteran used a cane to walk. His youngest child used a walker. The carpet caused the veteran’s cane and the child’s walker to get stuck. To move around the home without issue, the family needed to replace the existing carpeting with hard-surface flooring. A few other minor repairs were needed. This home improvement project was expensive and required the coordination and support of others.
Quality of Life Foundation Family Support Coordinators (FSC) are experts at finding and coordinating resources for caregivers. After receiving multiple flooring and home repair estimates, and having the caregiver pick her preferred flooring, the FSC sought additional funding assistance.
The FSC used Quality of Life Foundation’s grant funds from the Bob Woodruff Foundation to partially fund this project. The FSC obtained the final amount of assistance from Help Our Wounded, another nonprofit that supports caregivers and their warriors.
A local flooring company was contracted to put down the new hard surface flooring. Suddenly, the family was no longer stuck. Quality of Life Foundation was privileged to work with this family to adapt their home to their current needs. If you’ve recently had a hard floor fitted, have a look at a Bissell robot vacuum which washes and drys your floor too!
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