Urgent Need for Used Home Health Equipment Prompts St. Louis HELP Warehouse Expansion

SEPTEMBER 17, 2015, Olivette, Missouri…The St. Louis Health Equipment Lending Program (St. Louis HELP) is expanding its 5,000 square foot warehouse in Olivette by 2,000 square feet to accommodate increasing requests from people and families throughout metro St. Louis for free loans of revitalized home health equipment that the non-profit organization provides.

“We loaned 23 percent more home health equipment in 2014 than in 2013, and we are on track to exceed that percentage by a wide margin in 2015,” said Executive Director Laura Cannon-Singer. (http://stlhelp.org/).

“Our warehouse is nearly bursting with reconditioned wheelchairs, scooters, hospital beds, walkers, crutches, canes and more -- we had no choice but to expand into adjoining space before our semi-annual equipment drive occurs in October.”

From 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. on October 10, St. Louis HELP will collect donations of used home health equipment at 14 participating Walgreen’s parking lots in four metro area counties in St. Louis and Illinois. All home health equipment donations are tax-deductible. For addresses of participating locations, see St. Louis HELP’s website http://stlhelp.org/.

“There is a huge, region-wide need for the home medical equipment that we collect, recondition and provide. We are always working to restock our inventory of donated items to handle requests for free loans of that equipment,” she said.

“We accept donations of nearly every type of home medical equipment except oxygen and medications. We revitalize the equipment and loan it for free to anyone who needs it for as long as they need it,” said Cannon-Singer.

“Medicare, Medicaid and private insurance don’t always cover the cost of renting or buying certain types of home medical equipment that people desperately need.” she added “We provide this equipment at no charge.”

“In this way, we divert about 140 tons of used medical equipment from going into landfills every year, and nothing goes to waste. Good parts of broken equipment that we collect are used to repair other equipment. Broken wooden crutches are recycled via a tree chipping company.”

St. Louis HELP will accept equipment donations and provide donors with a receipt for tax-deduction purposes during the October 10 equipment drive. Examples of equipment that St. Louis HELP collects, revitalizes and loans include:

· Wheelchairs - manual and electric

· Scooters

· Walkers, Crutches and Canes

· Shower Chairs, Shower Stools, and Tub-Transfer Benches

· Portable Commodes

· Elevated Toilet Seats

· Shower, Tub and Wall Grab Bars

· Hospital Beds

· Lift Chairs

· Stair Lifts

· Reachers and Grabbers

In 2014, St. Louis HELP received a prestigious “Point of Light Award” for excellence in community service from Points of Light, the volunteer management organization founded in 1990 in response to President George Bush’s call for volunteer community service.

For more information, call (314) 567-4700 or see the website http://stlhelp.org/.

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