Loaned out special needs equipment like walkers, wall bars, stair or bathroom lifts, etc. actually aren’t yours to keep.
The Saskatchewan Abilities Council (SAC) and the Saskatchewan Health Authority (SHA) work with people with injuries, disabilities, and illnesses and provide them with safety equipment to use or to be installed in their homes to help create a safer living environment.
“Many of these pieces of equipment that people aren’t using anymore, sometimes they end up in people's storage sheds and garages... They might not know where it’s from. A lot of the equipment is from the Sask. Abilities Council. The Sask. Abilities Council loans out equipment to the people of Saskatchewan with no charge. There’s a courier that delivers it and a courier that can return it when you’re finished with it,” says Dawnelle Varga, a Physical Therapist with the SHA.
The Sask. Abilities Council has recently had to heavily rely on returned equipment for new patients. That's due to budget costs and supply chain issues.
“There’s only so much of a budget that we have from the government to be able to purchase new equipment so that’s always an issue but if there is equipment out there that people aren’t using, it makes a whole lot more sense from a taxpayer point of view to get the stuff returned and be able to use it then have to buy more,” says Varga.
Trevor Mather is the Special Needs Equipment Manager with the Sask. Abilities Council.
“It is appreciated when the equipment’s returned as soon as possible because we clean it up and fix it and get it out to somebody else. We are working with a budget and we do have to purchase more equipment all the time to basically keep everything going and that’s understandable but the other thing that’s happening right now is that it’s getting tougher to get newer equipment because of global shipping issues, material shortages and such so we are relying a little bit more on returned equipment to recycle and get out to people.”
Mather shares that the equipment is given out for free and returning it is at the discretion of the user.
SAC’s loaned equipment is marked with a green Sask. Abilities label with a 6-digit identification code.
Mather says returning the equipment is an easy process.
There are Special Needs Equipment Depots where the equipment can be dropped off too with no drop-off fee. There are currently depots in Saskatoon, Regina, Prince Albert, Swift Current, and Yorkton.
If you’re unable to drop equipment off because you’re not in those jurisdictions, there are various courier companies that work for the SAC and are able to pick up equipment for free.
If a courier is needed to go pick up equipment, people are asked to call their nearest depot to get the contact information for a courier.
The closest depot to Moose Jaw is in Regina and its phone number is 306-569-1262.