Travel with Mobility Challenges
A Good Time Can Be Had By All
Traveling with someone who has mobility challenges or a chronic health condition requires careful planning before leaving on a trip. To prevent problems during travel:
- Tell the person’s primary care doctor about the trip. Ask if there are any special care needs to
prepare in advance or during travel. - If going to a foreign country, ask the doctor about immunizations.
- Check the insurance policy to see what emergencies are covered. Is medical equipment insured if it gets lost or stolen? Is evacuation for medical reasons covered?
- Take the person’s health insurance card. Write the primary care doctor’s phone number on the card and the date of the last tetanus shot. Take the insurance benefits booklet. Consider buying travel insurance, but be sure to read the policy carefully, including the fine print.
- If you spend money for medical care, medications, or equipment during the trip, keep all receipts to get reimbursed.
- If the person is going to need medical care after arriving, make an appointment with a doctor in the new location before you leave home.
- Carry a card with the phone numbers of people to contact in case of emergency.
- Consider taking a portable grab bar for bathrooms.
- Tell the travel agent or airline if the person will need a wheelchair, and have it marked on the tickets.
- Tell the airline about any special food considerations.
- Call ahead to the airline, bus, or train station if you will need assistance getting the person onboard.
Traveling with Medications
Pack the medications the person in your care takes on a regular basis. All medications in any form or type and associated supplies are allowed through airport security checkpoint once they have been screened.
- List all the medications the person takes and why, with brand and generic names. Keep one copy in your suitcase and another in your carry-on.
- Bring enough medications to last the entire trip—plus some extra. Keep the medications with you at all times. Don’t check them.
- Keep the medications in the original containers with the original prescription labels.
- Make arrangements for refrigerating medications, if needed.
Comfort Keepers provides in-home care to seniors and the elderly living in Ocala, Gainesville, and The Villages, Florida. We provide superior in-home care to seniors and the elderly throughout Central Florida so they can live enriched independent lifestyles! Call us today at 855-592-0013.
photo credit: Global_5000
