Hidden Assets

No, not some offshore banking strategy to evade taxes or misrepresent holdings in divorce court. We don't want our assets to be hidden! We want everyone to know about the lightly used assistive technology (AT ) that is available for reuse at low or no cost. We need a massive awareness campaign.

On my morning walk I encountered a neighbor with his wife and we fell into a discussion of AT reuse. This neighbor owns a pharmacy and durable medical equipment (DME) business. In addition to numerous small items available for donation, he has a high-end power chair for a child that retails for over $17,000. He would love to free up some space in exchange for a donation receipt for his taxes. Here's the catch: He didn't know about our state/regional refurbishing hub at Friends of Disabled Adults and Children (FODAC) in Stone Mountain, just 50 miles away.

We need to mount major awareness campaigns for our reuse programs. If we can't reach all prospective customers, we can reach out to DME providers, physicians, physical therapists, occupational therapists, hospital case managers, social workers, and others in our communities who encounter people in need of affordable AT. Most states have associations of DME or home medical equipment providers. All states have professional organizations for physicians and therapists. Most have annual conventions. Find the dates and locations and join them to share the reuse message. That's a first step toward greater awareness in our communities.

If you no longer need this, someone else does

I love this slogan, but it's not original. Barbara Schultz of the Nebraska Assistive Technology Partnership uses this message and a telephone number on devices labeled for reuse. It's a dream of those in the reuse community to have every new AT device labeled for reuse before it is delivered to its first owner. That's because we know that so many devices are needed only for a short period of time, so the country is full of lightly-used AT that is badly needed by many who are uninsured, under-insured or experiencing delays in acquisition of new equipment. We would like to have every organization that sells or purchases AT label the devices with a source for information about a reuse program that serves the local community. If you are in a position to label new equipment, you can find information about local programs in the Locations Database at www.passitoncenter.org/locations.