Do you love the REquipment mission? Are you interested in helping us expand our reuse program and steer our vision? Perhaps you’ve benefitted from REquipment in the past? If the answer is yes, then please consider applying for REquipment DME and AT Reuse Program’s Board of Directors!
As a new non-profit, we are looking for people with a strong desire to advance our mission of durable medical equipment and assistive technology reuse. We are particularly interested in individuals who use DME or AT themselves and/or are from diverse ethnic communities or cultures. Ideal applicants will have 2 years personal experience using DME or AT, or have professional experience managing or promoting DME/AT programs, or work with individuals who use DME/AT.
Help us achieve statewide representation! Our board meets quarterly by phone to facilitate participation.
Join us on Saturday, May 20th from 9 – 2 pm at 100 Laurel Street in East Bridgewater
REquipment is holding its first equipment donation drive serving the Bridgewater area. The drive is co-sponsored by Independence Associates, Old Colony Elder Services, Easter Seals and School on Wheels Massachusetts. It is the first in a series of drives to be held across the state; gently-used durable medical equipment (DME), as well as new school supplies, will be collected.
“Equipment drives are a great way to collect a large number of items on one day for our inventory,” notes REquipment Program Director Jennifer Baker. “Generally we pick-up one donation at a time, which takes a lot longer and costs us a lot more. Drives help to conserve our program’s limited resources.”
Residents of communities surrounding East Bridgewater are urged to come drop off their unneeded durable medical equipment on drive day. Much of the equipment to be collected will benefit elders served by Old Colony Elder Services. Armindo Rocha, Old Colony’s homecare supervisor, says many of the seniors he serves need safety equipment in their homes. “Items like tub seats and shower chairs, as well as transport wheelchairs are needed so families can easily bring their elders to appointments in the community,” he says. “These devices are not always covered by insurance or the family needs a second device in another home or location.”
REquipment also encourages donations of power and manual wheelchairs, scooters, rollator-type walker, portable ramps, standers and adapted strollers. REquipment does not accept canes, crutches, walkers, commodes or hospital beds. (These may be offered to local Council on Aging loan closets.)
“We have a generous community,” observes Steve Higgins, Executive Director of Independence Associates. Steve offered his center’s location for the drive without hesitation. Independence Associates is the independent living center serving 31 cities and towns on the South Shore including East Bridgewater. “We serve many people both young and old with disabilities who can benefit from this drive or make a donation if there’s equipment they’re not using.” Independence Associates, along with Easter Seals MA, are also recruiting young people to volunteer and work the day through their Youth Leadership Network and Transition to Adulthood Programs.
In addition to gently-used durable medical equipment, the drive will also be collecting new school supplies such as paper, pens and backpacks to benefit students impacted by homelessness and served by School on Wheels Massachusetts.
If you live in the Bridgewater area, please bring your unused durable medical equipment and school supplies. Stop by, too, to learn more about programs serving elders and people with disabilities and about School on Wheels. Our programs make a tremendous difference for young and old in Massachusetts.
If you live in Arlington check out your basement, garage and closets to see if you have anything to donate for Super Recycle and Waste Diversion Day!
The Town of Arlington is holding this annual spring event on Saturday, May 13th from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. at 51 Grove Street, Arlington (enter from Massachusetts Avenue).
Items accepted for reuse include bicycles, used toys, children’s clothing and books. REquipment will be collecting gently-used medical equipment such as power and manual wheelchairs, rollators, tub seats and shower chairs, portable ramps, knee walkers. We will not accept canes, crutches, walkers or commodes.
On April 12th, REquipment had the privilege of attending an assistive technology (AT) symposium held by the Department of Developmental Services (DDS) in its southeast region. The event attracted 250 individuals including DDS staff, AT vendors, and other professionals who came to hear people with disabilities and their AT specialists talk about the positive impact assistive technology has had on their lives.
This was a wonderful opportunity for REquipment to inform and update DME users and the service network in southeastern Massachusetts about REquipment. Roxy Rocker, REquipment Program Coordinator, attended to staff our vendor table and over 80 people stopped to speak with her, take our promotional materials and signup for our newsletter.
Roxy Rocker chats with Tom Mercier
Roxy reports, “The people I spoke with were excited to learn we are turning around so much equipment this year and were thoughtful about how our program might serve individuals they know.” She says she enjoyed the event and getting a chance to chat with DDS AT Program Director, Tom Mercier. DDS is one of REquipment’s original reuse partners and hosts our AT reuse center in Worcester.
We look forward to many years of productive collaboration to serve all communities in Massachusetts!
REquipment is suffering from success. Since September we’ve given away over 70 refurbished power wheelchairs, the most expensive items in our inventory. New, these powerchairs range from $5,000 (basic models) to $45,000 (custom configurations). As you can imagine, giving away equipment this expensive makes a remarkable difference in the lives of people who request it. The challenge now is to keep pace with device donations and demand.
Our staff spends most of their time evaluating, inspecting, repairing, cleaning, and testing each power wheelchair before it is assigned to a new owner. Every power wheelchair receives two new batteries to ensure the chair will operate properly. We use our limited resources wisely and shop around to get the best price we can for batteries; it costs between $160-$200 per power wheelchair for batteries alone.
Why are we so motivated?
Some people can’t function without this equipment. They’re people with new or lifelong disabilities, elders, families with children with disabilities or those with a temporary need due to surgery or illness. Examples include:
a woman in Jamaica Plain who uses a manual wheelchair but finds traveling distances impossible due to arthritis in her hands. Her REquipment powerchair means she no longer enlists help from strangers to push her home from work.
a woman in Worcester who uses her REquipment powerchair to go shopping and meet friends for lunch. These were activities she’d avoided with her rollator, following a stroke.
a woman in Salem who lives in a homeless shelter with MS; she is now getting out into her community with help from a REquipment powerchair.
When I tell people what REquipment does–accepting used medical equipment, cleaning, repairing and giving it away for free–I always get a great response: “That’s wonderful!” “It’s so needed!” “It’s great someone is doing it and not throwing all that equipment away!”
Well, now I’m asking for your help.
When we started the fiscal year in September we budgeted $6,000 for batteries. Due to a marvelously high level of powerchair donations, we doubled that budget in late March. But with 70 power wheelchairs out the door, we’re already again depleted! To keep REquipment powerchairs rolling, we need to raise a minimum of $4,500 to get us through June 30th.
Won’t you sponsor a battery? $200 gets a REquipment powerchair out of our warehouse and rolling into your communities.
Donations of any amount can be made at www.dmereuse.org or by sending a check made out to REquipment DME Reuse Program to REquipment, PO Box 311, Methuen, MA 01844.
We feel tremendously fortunate to receive so many wheelchair donations and be in a position to transform so many lives. Be a part of this!
Our March 3rd interview with Senator Harriette Chandler is now available for viewing. Unfortunately, captions are not yet available (we are requesting this of WCCA). To read about our Beacon Hill Chat interview visit this REquipment blog post. For the video, click the image below.
Left to right: Randi Sargent, Karen Langley, Senator Chandler
Pay It Forward is a great way to think about DME reuse. Rather than paying someone back who helps us, we “pay it forward” to the next person in need. At REquipment, we help community members “pay it forward” all the time. Someone pays it forward with the donation of durable medical equipment (DME) so we can refurbish it for someone else. From there the cycle keeps going, gaining momentum, and hopefully gathering up more of us in this circle of interdependence and care.
If you or a family member have been the beneficiary of equipment from the REquipment Durable Medical Equipment Reuse Program please consider how you might pay it forward so that others can benefit as you have. Below are a few suggestions, but we’d love to hear your ideas as well!
Share your REquipment story! Tell others how they can donate devices they are no longer using and how you were helped.
Help us illustrate the power of DME reuse. Email us a picture (jpeg) of you with your equipment and a few sentences about the impact it has had on your life.
Join us to visit lawmakers at the State House or district offices. Your story is essential to help maintain or expand state funding for these efforts.
Join us with private funders as well. Tell them your story and inspire enthusiasm for supporting DME reuse.
Volunteer with us. Call or email and we’ll discuss ways you might help. (Transportation costs are reimbursed.)
Yesterday was Independent Living Education Day at the State House. The event is a great opportunity to educate lawmakers on the challenges persons with disabilities face and the role REquipment plays to support their community living. Below is my testimony:
Karen Langley speaking to attendees of IL Education Day at the State House on March 22nd, 2017
Crossing a Boston street, a woman using a power-assist manual wheelchair broke her front caster on the trolley track. Her DME company said it would take 2 weeks to get the part and fix it.
A newly-disabled man with a spinal cord injury was ready to leave Spaulding Rehab Hospital but needed a power wheelchair to go home. His customized equipment was on order but would take several months to deliver.
A woman on Martha’s Vineyard’s scooter broke and she needed a replacement so she could stay active in her community.
A woman in Worcester fell on her way out of work and broke her leg on the icy sidewalk. Using crutches on the job was too exhausting.
A family in Boston needed an adapted stroller for their son with cerebral palsy once he grew too heavy to carry.
An elderly woman was ready for discharge from a rehab facility, but needed a wheelchair for use at home. Medicare was no longer providing the equipment she needed and she owed a DME company money on the wheelchair she’d had before her hospitalization.
What do these people have in common?
They all benefitted from the REquipment Durable Medical Equipment Reuse program. Each was provided with refurbished equipment for free when they needed it.
Since REquipment first started as a pilot in 2013, we have given away over 1,300 pieces of equipment. These include power and manual wheelchairs, scooters, tub seats, shower chairs, sling lifts, rollators, standers, adapted strollers, knee walkers, positioning seating, portable ramps and a whole lot more! In less than 5 years, REquipment has already saved persons with disabilities and seniors a total of $2.6 million through reuse.
How many people here today use these types of devices or who have family members that do?
How many of you don’t have backup equipment should your mobility equipment break and need a repair?
If you use durable medical equipment, you know repairs can often take a couple of weeks to get fixed. So what happens in the meantime? You miss out on school, work, socialization, attending church or family events and more.
Ever been stuck in bed waiting for repairs? You are now at risk of secondary health conditions such as pneumonia, blood clots, and pressure sores. Having a backup system is essential.
That is why REquipment came into existence: to support people with disabilities and elders who need equipment when their insurance won’t provide it, or when it will take too long for new equipment to arrive, or when they need a second piece of equipment for many other reasons.
The 2010 Massachusetts census reported there are 171,000 people with an ambulatory disability ages 18-64 in the Commonwealth, and 85,000 are using wheelchairs and scooters. There are also 938,000 elders over the age of 65.
On behalf of all who may become a REquipment service user, we wish to thank the legislators for funding this safety net program.
And as all of us make our visits with our state reps and senators today to talk about health care, housing vouchers, and access legislation, please also take a minute to thank your legislator for his or her continued support for REquipment DME reuse Program.
Whether you need equipment or, perhaps, have equipment to donate, your support is needed and appreciated.
On March 3rd, Senator Harriette Chandler invited our durable medical reuse program to her community access TV show Beacon Hill Chat. Sen. Chandler learned about us at a recent legislative forum hosted by Easter Seals, the Center for Living and Working and Elder Services of Worcester. She clearly loved the program’s mission and wanted to assist us with spreading the word among her constituents in Central Massachusetts. We were delighted!
Senator Chandler expected to interview me with someone who has benefited from REquipment donations and would tell their story. At the last minute, however, our invited program user was not able to attend and we thought we were in trouble.
Then in rolled Randi Sargent!
Randi works for Easter Seals which has office space in the same building as REquipment, Inc. in Worcester. She is a former REquipment Program Director and, importantly, a recent REquipment device recipient! Graciously, Randi bailed us out of our embarrassment and we were off to the Worcester Community Access TV studio.
Left to right: Randi Sargent, Karen Langley, Senator Chandler
On Channel 194, Randi explained how she broke her ankle this winter, falling on the ice. Stuck in an air cast and crutches, she was told no to weight bearing for four months. Randi contacted REquipment for a manual wheelchair and a knee walker to giver her increased mobility and the capacity to get back to work.
Randi did a great job talking about the benefit the devices have made. She also spoke as a mom of a teenage son who uses durable medical equipment and the issues families like hers face wrestling with insurance providers as their children grow out of their equipment. Some devices are simply not covered by insurance at all. “There’s a huge need for pediatric DME and reuse can play an important role.”
Senator Chandler was so impressed, she has suggested REquipment host its own monthly cable show to share the stories of the many people we serve. If you watch WCCA TV look for us soon!
Spring is only two weeks away and in some places the crocuses are already blooming!
National Seating and Mobility (NSM), a durable medical equipment company serving Massachusetts, recently started spring cleaning early in concert with their move to new quarters. As a result of their cleaning, they donated many pieces of durable medical equipment to REquipment including…
6 manual wheelchairs,
5 power wheelchairs,
1 scooter,
1 sling lift,
7 tub/shower chairs,
1 stander,
1 positioning chair and
6 bed rails!
Susan Houston, NSM Branch Manager, says all the devices are in good condition and were used as loaners or for demonstrations. New model demo devices have been ordered.
Over the next few weeks, each item will be thoroughly checked, cleaned and posted to our website.
Do you have gently-used durable medical equipment that you are no longer using? Consider cleaning up for spring and making a difference to a neighbor who can use it! Call us at 1-800-261-9841 to discuss a donation or fill out our online donation form.
Many thanks to Susan and the staff at NSM for making a difference to our community and remembering REquipment for their unused DME!
