Getting In and Out of a Car
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For someone with poor mobility, getting in and out of a car can be difficult. Using the right technique, and ideally having an aid or two, will help.
Alternatively, it's worth considering using a wheelchair and travelling in a 'wheelchair taxi' or a suitably equipped bus - see our section on wheelchairs for travelling out.
Avoid SUVs
Firstly, note that it may be impossible to get someone into the seat of an SUV, because the seat (and the floor) are just too high. The person will need to be able to sit their bottom fully onto the edge of the seat from standing on the ground.
Get the car ready
It's likely to be much easier to use the front seat, and to have it slid back so that the seat back is level with the door post, to give the most room possible. Also, try to have the car in a place where the door can be opened fully without banging into anything - it's likely to move during the process. Consider re-parking the car temporarily if necessary.
Be prepared with the height of the car seat at the right level - so that the person can sit backwards fully onto the edge of the seat. You don't want the person to feel like they're falling in (and too low a level would make it difficult to get out again), but equally you want them sitting, not perching in a standing position so they could slide out of the seat when you start moving their legs into the car. You may need to try slightly different heights each time until you get the perfect one.
The best method
The fundamentals
Get the car ready, with the seat at the correct height, as noted above.
The person shouldn't try to get in as a young person would (foot first into the footwell) - this requires a great deal of strength in the leg muscles to hold the body weight on the other bended leg, and also requires balance, coordination and in effect speed. If anything goes wrong that way, you're falling backwards out of the car.
Instead, it's much easier and safer to get into the car bottom first, with both their feet on the ground outside the car. When they're sitting on the seat they can shuffle their bottom back (i.e. towards the centre of the car) if necessary until their bottom is well supported. It should then be safe to help them turn so they're sitting forwards in the seat, lifting their feet up into the car. Get them to do as much of the swinging their feet round as they can - see our safety considerations below.
Getting out is the reverse of this - lifting the feet out of the car and helping them turn so they're sitting facing out and with both feet on the ground outside the car; shuffling their bottom forwards (i.e. away from the centre of the car) a little if necessary; and then helping them stand up. Allow the person to take their time.
Safety considerations
Within the above procedure there are a few safety things to keep an eye on:
- Make sure they don't bang their head on the edge of the roof
- Make sure they don't trap their fingers by holding on to the car door around the edge, since their weight may well pull the door shut by mistake, and if they do hold a handle inside the door then you'll need to hold the door from moving (but see alternative holding aids below)
- If helping to lift their legs up into the car, give them time to turn in the seat by shuffling round - don't swing their legs round quickly as that could twist their back or hips (also see rotating car cushions below). As with all things, tell the person what you're going to do before you do it, and what you'd like them to do (before and whilst you do it). If the person has fragile skin be particularly aware of the risk of skin tears when turning on the seat, and make sure trousers or skirt are long enough to ensure no direct sliding contact between the skin and the seat.
Transferring from a walking aid or wheelchair
If the person uses a rollator walking aid then put both brakes on when in position and about to sit down into the car, to prevent it rolling forwards and taking away their support (and likewise when standing to get out).
Similarly, if transferring from a wheelchair make sure both brakes are on and the footplates have been taken off or turned out of the way. Making the last movement of the chair a forwards one before stopping and removing the footplates will ensure the front wheels are turned back on their castors, slightly more out of the way.
Transfer aids
'Handy Handle'
There's an aid called a 'Handy Handle' which an able-bodied person can use to help balance the person and lower them more gradually into the seat, and to help raise them out of the seat.
It's simply a handle with rubber grips that you can both hold on to with both hands (this obviously relies on you not being overbalanced) - see the Complete Care Shop website, for 'Handy Handle'. (We don't receive any money for mentioning this shop - but we have used them and do find their range useful.) Also see the Living Made Easy website, for 'car handle' (note that the different products aren't ranked or rated, and you should check that any supplier listed is reputable).
'Rotating car cushion'
There's an aid usually described as a 'rotating car cushion', which aims to make it easier to turn from sitting facing out of the car to facing forwards in the car.
These get very mixed reviews - half the people love them and half say they're useless. Part of this will be due to the particular cushion, part due to the car seat, and part due to how the cushion is used. We give some tips here on what to look for.
Firstly, there are two types: ones that are a thick, solid seat and ones that are two thin discs of quilted cloth with a thin central pivot disc. We'd avoid the thick, solid type, because they won't support the legs comfortably for the car journey. Also, if the cushion disc is too large for the seat, or the sides of the seat are steeply angled ('sports' seats), the disc catches the sides or back of the car seat and won't turn.
For the type consisting of two thin discs of quilted cloth, the idea is that the surfaces that touch each other inside the cushion are low friction to help turning, whilst the base and top of the cushion are normal. (Simply having a slippery surface on top of the seat, which would also allow the person to slide forwards under heavy braking, is potentially dangerous even when wearing a correctly tightened seatbelt, and even with the base of the car seat tilted back slightly.) The rotating cushion should help, but don't expect it to glide effortlessly. Again, if the sides of the seat are steeply angled then turning out of the car is going to be an uphill struggle - literally. In this case raising the thighs as the person turns may help, or ahead of time make the seat flatter by fastening a thin flat cushion to the centre of the seat.
Perhaps much of the success or otherwise depends on where the centre of the cushion is placed, relative to where the person sits on it. Logically, the best result is likely to be obtained if the person's weight is near the centre of the cushion so that they swivel on the spot rather than going round as if on a carousel - but you could try varying the position and seeing what works best for you. The very centre of the cushion may be hard, though, so if that's the case then try to avoid the weight being on that during the journey. Another thing to look out for is whether the person shuffling their bottom backwards into the car has ruffled the cushion, as this will make it more difficult to rotate. Some cushions have a tab to fasten them onto the car seat where the back of the seat meets the base - so long as this allows the cushion to be placed correctly then it could help keep it in position and not slide off out of the car as the person stands up.
These cushions can be bought relatively cheaply from online shops such as Amazon and eBay - look for ones with good reviews (bearing in mind that none of them satisfy everyone).
We'd love to hear your experience (good or bad) of using a turning aid for the car seat, via our contact form. Please tell us everything that might help us understand why some people love them and some don't - including the type and make of aid you've used, how flat the car seat is, where you've found the best place to have the centre of the rotating cushion, whether it ruffles up, the person's weight or build, and anything else you think might be relevant.