Goodwill ends the free medical equipment program.
Hoisting a 160-pound woman who can't walk can weigh you day after day

For Christine Harris, donated medical equipment eases the burden, but others in her situation don't have the same options now.

Goodwill ends the free medical equipment program.
Yesterday marked the end of Goodwill's Medical/Adaptive Equipment Program, which supplied Harris and her 19-year-old daughter, Chanel, with a patient hoist and a standing lift at their home near Richmond International Raceway.

The equipment makes it possible to move Chanel from bed to wheelchair and to do therapy designed to help her walk.

Though the family won't lose the equipment they have, "we just have to work with the things we got for now until we can find some other financial means to get things for Chanel," Harris said.
.Patients, medical professionals, and Goodwill itself hope someone steps up to fill the vo
"We're losing a huge, important thing in the medical homebound profession as a resource," said Jean Hewlett, an occupational therapist at Bon Secours Home Health.

"I don't know what I'm going to do," Hewlett said. "It's very time-consuming to go out to the thrift stores and try to find things for people who can't afford it and can't get to the thrift stores."

Even if she found something such as a hospital bed, she would have no way to transport it, she added.

"Those are pieces of equipment that I can't get in my car. It's a really huge loss. I don't know who will pick up the slack here, but we're going to need somebody."
. . .

Goodwill has ended the 10-year-old program because funding didn't keep up with expenses, said Michael Winckler, vice president for workforce development.

He estimated $110,000 as the annual minimum needed to pay technicians who repair donated equipment and keep delivery trucks running.

Two years ago, United Way supplied $90,000, and other donors also supported the program. This year, United Way committed only $30,000, and "that's the only funding we have," Winckler said.

Goodwill's board felt that its core services -- employment centers and vocational services -- needed to have the top priority in a recession, he said. The core programs serve more than 19,000 people, while the adaptive-equipment program serves fewer than 1,000, he added.

"How do we take the limited resources we have and apply them to the largest number of people? We did have to make that difficult choice," Winckler said.

"We're hopeful that a medical not-for-profit will step up and fill the void."
. . .

The only possibility at the moment is the Foundation for Rehabilitative Equipment and Endowment, or FREE, in Roanoke.

FREE director Sonja Schaible said the organization is conducting a feasibility study to see if its volunteer-based model could work in Richmond. A decision is expected by the end of March.

"We don't want to rush into something and have to close the doors in a year. We want to make sure it's long-term," she said.

FREE gets donated equipment from individuals and organizations such as Goodwill. Volunteers refurbish and sanitize the equipment. People who need it have to arrange for someone to pick it up from the storage site.
The Roanoke group also keeps track of how its equipment has an impact on people in the community, Schaible said -- "how many hospitals stays we prevent, how we keep people from more injury or falls due to improper equipment, how we keep people out of the emergency room, how we increase independence through mobility equipment and keep them in the environment they're in and not in nursing homes or assisted living. Our outcomes have been in the 80 to 90 percent range for all of those.

"The fact that it's impacted the person also impacts the community. It saves dollars. The community is picking up the tab if they have to go into the hospital or long-term care facility. What affects the person also affects the community."