A personal chair in a care home should be chosen together with the person who will use it and the home that will accommodate it. Before buying, you need to agree on placement, required features, how it will be used, cleaning and support. A riser recliner chair with integrated care features can offer different support and adjustments from those already available, but it has to fit into the way the home actually works. The first step is not ordering the model: it is understanding which need it should meet and which checks are required before it can be used.
In brief
Choosing a personal chair affects both the resident’s comfort and the daily work of those who care for them. To move forward clearly, share the proposed product with the home before ordering: dimensions, movements, upholstery, access for mobility aids and ongoing support. The conditions must be checked for the specific care home and country concerned. An agreement that refers to the actual configuration is more useful than general consent to bring in “a chair”.
Start from the resident’s need, not from replacing the furniture
The request may come from the person themselves or from a family member: having a better-proportioned seat, finding better support for the head, resting in a different position or making the move to standing more manageable. Before assessing features, write down which activity you would like to improve.
Do not assume that the home’s chair is unsuitable or that one bought privately is always better. Ask which adjustments and supports are already available and what is missing in actual use. If the person uses a customised wheelchair or a specific support, these must remain part of the discussion.
The wish to have one’s own chair may also be linked to taste and familiarity. The resident’s point of view matters: upholstery that the family likes is no substitute for their own judgement on support, controls and position. The plan must meet the needs of the person who will spend time in the chair.
Before ordering: ask to discuss the proposed chair with the home
Identify the contact person at the home with whom to discuss the request and involve, depending on how things are organised locally, those who oversee care and those who assess equipment and the environment. It is not enough to know that other residents own a personal chair: the product, the room and the needs may be different.
A public example comes from the French portal for older people: for moving into an EHPAD (a French nursing home for dependent older people), it mentions the possibility of bringing personal furniture, including an armchair, provided that space and safety rules allow it. This information refers to the French context; it is not an authorisation valid in every European care home. [1]
For your situation, ask which conditions must be met and which documents are needed. Keep a confirmation that refers to the chosen model and configuration. If the room, the upholstery or the intended use changes later on, clarify whether the check needs to be updated.
A three-way discussion: the person, the home and the Sollevita Team
The person and their family bring preferences and daily difficulties. The home clarifies how care is organised and the requirements for use on its premises. The Sollevita Team explains the product’s features and the proposed configuration. These contributions are different and must come together before ordering.
For example, “would like to rest without going straight back to bed” is a goal to discuss with those who look after the resident. “Which positions does the chair offer?” is a technical question. “Who helps with reaching them and returning to the seated position?” concerns organisation. None of the three answers makes the others unnecessary.
Sollevita is made in Italy by La Castellana. The seat can be configured with a seat width of 52 or 63 cm and three seat depths; a high backrest, the Push Head powered headrest and independent adjustments make it possible to discuss specific support and uses. [3] Presenting the features of the Sollevita care riser recliner to the contact person prevents the proposal from being mistaken for a generic relax chair.
Placement and movements: look beyond the chair in its closed position
When checking the room, describe where the chair will be used and for which activities. What matters is not only its footprint when closed: you also need to consider how it opens, its moving parts, access, the power supply and the space needed by those providing care. If the room is shared, include the use of the other resident’s space and the common walkways too.
With Sollevita, it is important to tell the movements apart. The rise function supports the move to standing; vertical height adjustment changes the height of the whole chair with the person seated or lying down. The latter can be relevant for some care activities and for setting the height for transfers, but it does not define the procedure on its own. [3]
Say which aids are already in use. The removable side panel and the adjustable height need to be compared with the actual bed, wheelchair or patient hoist. The documentation for a similar model is not enough to establish whether the combination present in the home is compatible.
Moving the chair to a shared area must also be agreed. Sollevita’s manually moved wheeled base allows short assisted moves indoors within the specified limits; it is not an autonomous electric drive, nor permission to use any route. [3]
Upholstery, cleaning and documents to share
The choice of upholstery must take into account both the person’s comfort and how the chair will be looked after. Sollevita offers Raggio di Sole and Mons fabrics or faux leather, and its covers are fully removable on two levels: both the outer cover and the underlying cover can be taken off. [3]
These options need to be linked to the instructions for the chosen material. Ask the home which products and procedures it intends to use and have the Sollevita Team check that they are compatible. Do not assume that the method used for other seating is also suitable for the new upholstery.
Likewise, if documents are requested on fire behaviour, materials, electrical components or other requirements, pass the exact request on to the supplier. The check must concern the product and upholstery actually proposed. This article does not attribute to Sollevita any certifications beyond the available documentation, nor does it establish identical requirements in all countries.
Also decide who takes care of routine cleaning, who removes the covers when necessary and which seat the person uses during maintenance. A practical design is valuable when the work is organised, not left to the initiative of whichever family member happens to be there.
Who uses the controls and who receives the explanations
It helps to distinguish three roles: the person who uses the chair directly, the person who helps them and the person who reports technical needs. These roles may partly overlap, but this should not be taken for granted.
The explanation must reach those who are there day to day, not only those involved in the purchase. If the resident operates some adjustments independently, the relevant ones are explained. If the controls are operated by staff, you need to agree on how a movement is announced and how the person can ask for it to stop.
Suva points out that the use of aids in care needs to go hand in hand with work organisation and staff training. [2] In the case of a chair, explaining the product complements this expertise: it does not replace it.
Support by video call from the Sollevita Team makes it possible to clarify functions and use remotely as well. Staff participation and how the contact takes place should be agreed with the home. It is not a remote healthcare service and does not automatically make the Sollevita Team responsible for care procedures. [3]
A simple checklist for reaching a clear agreement
The table below is a guide for the discussion, not a mandatory specification. Fill it in with the contact people involved and keep the answers together with the product documents.
| Point to agree | What to record in the confirmation |
|---|---|
| User and goal | The person concerned, the desired activities and the need the chair should meet. |
| Configuration | Model, seat dimensions, weight capacity and upholstery actually proposed. |
| Placement and use | Room, planned movements, any shared areas and checks on mobility aids. |
| Care home requirements | Documents requested, aspects checked and questions still open. |
| Controls and support | Who receives the explanation and who supports the user in the planned activities. |
| Cleaning and maintenance | Materials, instructions, contact person and an alternative seat when needed. |
| Ongoing support | Who contacts the Sollevita Team and how the guidance received is shared. |
Do not just write “compliant” or “suitable”. Specify which check the answer refers to and which documents accompany it. For a question that is still open, it is enough to name the contact person who will clarify it: an explicit point still to be completed is better than an agreement that looks complete but is ambiguous.
After the chair arrives, you still need a shared point of reference
The first observations concern the agreed activities: does the person find the support they wanted? Are the controls used as explained? Can staff get access without moving the furniture every time? If a difficulty arises, it should be described before positions or accessories are changed indiscriminately.
The relationship continues through the Sollevita warranty and direct service, with support by video call and technical support according to the agreed conditions. [3] The home must know who keeps the chair’s reference details and who can liaise with the service, so that parallel requests with different information are avoided.
The guide to delivery and first use of the chair looks in more detail at the practical side of its arrival. Here the decisive step comes earlier: sharing a plan of use that makes sense for the resident and for their care.
Reference sources
[1] CNSA / Service public de l’autonomie — Preparing to move into a care home (in French)
[2] Suva — Smart moving and handling in care and support work (in Italian)
[3] Sollevita / La Castellana — Product documentation
Features taken from the documentation provided to the editorial team; the link points to the product page, not to a clinical assessment.
The health sources support the principles referred to; they do not recommend or certify Sollevita. Tables and examples are editorial content, not clinical tests or documented cases.
A shared choice, before buying
Bring the person’s request and the care home’s guidance to the Sollevita Team. Together we can compare dimensions, functions and the documents to share, so that the chair has a clear role in the day: more comfort for the person using it and straightforward management for those who look after them.
