Walking aids used in stroke and head injury treatment
Andy MacKellar • February 26, 2020
Standard height walking sticks or tripods used to help walking after stroke and head injury, can create as many problems as they solve. Here is one alternative that might suit some people.
Walking sticks, tripod sticks elbow crutches and their like that are set at standard wrist height to help walking after stroke or head injury, can encourage the user to stoop slightly, and fix rigidly to the handle. This often creates a feeling of some safety during walking and standing, but using fixation as a strategy can have it's problems.
The beauty of human walking is it's effortlessness, flow and grace. It's incredibly efficient. Some people will always need some form of support for their work on walking, but when possible to progress to free walking, the high stick shown here can be a good thing to try, when transition away from plain sticks and tripods is on the cards.
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If you learn a bit about how you are built, we think it will be easier to follow home exercises and self treatment procedures that we teach people to use at home. We'd love to improve these as always, so do share your criticisms and ideas. We won't take it personally. We'll just make it better.
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Who knew there was so much to say about your big toe ? The joint that attaches your toe to the main part of the foot is key to walking. So it needs to be flexible enough to provide the propulsion stage of walking. This clip shows how you can have a go at improving the range of movement in the big toe joint, and the effects ought to be two fold. One is improvement in any pain that you experience and the other is to have better gait or style when walking. Do send your comments and share your experience if you try this at home.
