A home health care adjuster visited my home this summer to evaluate my hubby for his long term care policy. She suggested that my husband stop using the stairs and move his bedroom downstairs.

I am wondering if anyone uses a Chairlift for stairs? Can a PhD use them safely?

I have not heard of anyone using one, but my major concern would be the movements and the damage they can do to the chair without you knowing. My family members constatly break chairs, couches, recliners, car seats, because of their movements. It would be terrible if it broke down or completely fell apart while he was using it.
On top of that is the possibility of falling from the chair or stiff joints preventing someone from sitting properly in the chair.
But, again, I have not known anyone to use one (for any diagnosis) so this is just my thoughts.

KT those are all of my concerns too. Also how long they are useful, they are pretty expensive even when used.

I have a chairlift. Tony used it one time with our son holding him in place. He could not keep his feet on the foot rests and I was afraid that his foot would fall between the stair and the chair. It does have a dead man switch but still it was frightening. It does have a seat belt so he could not fall off, but he could get an arm between the chair and the posts of the stairs.

I had ours equipped with a key so that he would not be tempted to use it when he was alone but he never wanted to. Our upstairs has a balcony overlooking the den and it is scary for Tony to get near that balcony!!

Take it from me, sleeping in the dining room is not all bad. Think how close you are to the kitchen if you get hungry in the middle of the night. Maggie

My dad had a stairlift, we got great use out of it for 4 years, it allowed us to keep dad at home for the end stages of his progression. The OT could not authorise such a thing though, health and safety rules would never allow it. But we felt it would suit our specific situation, my dad's movements had got to the point where they had slowed right down so they weren't an issue, and the alternative to a stairlift was to transform our home into a care home (which we didn't want to do).

So we went and bought a chair, and we got some seatbelts in the process. Attached the belts to the chair, one across his stomach and the other for his arms and chest (almost like a theme park ride). We used to let his feet dangle, rather than strap them in, it was more comfortable for him. For 4 years it worked very well, we had a wheelchair on each floor, and we were able to move dad around as freely as was possible. We had a remote to control it, but if that broke then we controlled it manually from the chair. It turned out to be a huge positive for us and probably the most valuable piece of equipment we had.

I wouldn't recommend the chairlift for everyone with HD, but in individual cases where chorea is not too bad I feel it can be used with good benefits.

Take care,
Matt.

[www.hdyo.org]

Thanks Maggie, that is how I envision it going. We have 100 year old house and two landings. I can't imagine it being an easy ride.

He would not even have to sleep in dining room, he will have a sep bedroom and a door. I would just have to convert our half bath to a full bath. MIL is concerned that if I take the top floor away dementia will set in. I am not sure that living on one floor is giving up too much. Specially since you are right he is closer to the fridge and snack cabinet