My wife slumps towards the right in her chair. How can I stop that?

Update:

The carpenter, seamstress and PT came.

Many ideas are being tried out; drawings. I’ll let you know. This will take some days.

THANK YOU.

https://www.seatingseniors.com/pages/parkinsons-and-mealtimes

This is a chair that swivels, rolls and can be locked in place. It's heavier, so may not tip as easily.

It seems like bracing your wife to the chair (perhaps with a velcro vest arrangement?) might be worth a try.

Maybe something like this:

https://www.vitalitymedical.com/posey-torso-support.html

Thanks a lot, to all of you! Very kind, very useful.

The carpenter comes today. But we need some days to try things out. I’ll let you know how it works out. Our hope is that the velcro/belt idea works (the carpenter had suggested this right away). And I see many of you suggesting this. THANK YOU.

Sounds like you are getting some good suggestions. The only thing I can see is a chair with wings that extend down the sides. Seems to be a common problem. I looked at chairs they claim are for those suffering from Parkinsons but I see nothing where the tilting is being taken in consideration.

I did want to comment on walkers. A neighbor's wife suffered from Parkinsons. He told me when Parkinsons people fall they fall backward not forward. His wife had a walker designed to help with this problem. Had something to do with the way it was weighted in the front. Just giving u a heads up if you weren't aware of this.

Update.
All of you - thank you for your help. We continue to try different solutions.

Latest solution:

Negative (what didn't work):
-Belt/velcro: uncomfortable, feels like a straightjacket
-Back brace: can be painful after some hours

Positive (what might work):
-The carpenter today built a vertical board, to be placed on the right side of the chair, with a hole/empty space in the bottom, so that my wife can easily move her right elbow/arm. The top part of the board will have en elongated horizontal thing that sticks out, so that my wife can lean her head against this, and in this way, her body doesn't lean to the right, while at the same time she can freely use her right arm. He returns next week to experiment some more.
-Some of you mentioned other types of chairs, cushions; we're looking into it.

Happy Easter everyone!

Both of my parents did this exact thing (neither one had Parkinsons) and no solution was found for either one of them. An oblong pillow was stuffed under mom's arm while in her wheelchair and that provided a TINY bit of help, but not much. Her doctors, physical therapist, occupational therapist & finally her hospice nurse never were able to find one single solution to the slumping over problem she suffered from. You'd really think, in this day and age, SOMETHING would be found to alleviate this problem that many seem to suffer from, huh?

I'm sorry Mary is going through such a thing and I hope your carpenter comes up with an answer. If so, please come back & share it with us here on AgingCare. Good luck!

I don't know much about Parkinson's but coincidentally, I was re-reading "The Last Interview of Oliver Sacks" today and in a conversation with Charlie Rose, I think, he discussed a patient with this exact problem. The patient was a carpenter and a good problem solver. He asked Sacks if a spirit level could be rigged up for him - a tool evidently used in carpentry. According to Sacks, it worked for the patient, although I'm not sure of specifics. They postulated that the part of the brain which controls balance perception was damaged frequently in PD patients. I'll bet there is some information somewhere on the Internet about an adaptive device.

By the way, Oliver Sacks was a very famous neurologist and a wonderful writer.

Have you ever heard of Moonpods? They are an updated version of bean bag furniture, but hear me out....

They call Moonpods (and Yogibos, another brand of the same thing) "anti-gravity" since the new style beads conform to your body as you kind of sink in.

I bought a Moonpod crescent pillow. It's big, and shaped like a crescent of course. I bought it to see if it'd help with pain in hips and spine in bed.

1) In bed, it make me feel like I was floating, and with far less pain.
2) I couldn't sit anymore on the couch or loveseat as it was too deep and I also needed arm support. When I lay the Moonpod crescent on the furniture with the closed end against the back of the furniture, it shortens the depth and allows my arms to be supported (by the crescent's arms).

The beads allow you to push into them shift a position, like to lower your arm or elbow (or head)--you've noted that other things you've tried prevents her from moving her arm.

Since you have a brainstorming carpenter on your team, maybe you two can peek at Moonpods (or Yogibos) online to see if one of their styles could be worked with for her chair(s). (They don't just sell crescent-shaped pods.)

In the nursing home we used a pillow folded in half under pt's forearm, and between thigh & arm rest of chair. On the side they lean towards. So it forms a shelf they can rest their arm on. Put the ends of pillow down towards the seat. And push it in between her outside of her thigh and chair arm. Be careful bc skin can sheer, so no ramming it in there with your hand. We used our hand outstretched fingers together and tucked it in. Should be quite comfortable. It works. Good luck.

Boy, I'm having a hard time participating in discussions here -- don't even know how to send a private message. Anyway, to follow up on my reply: A lot of us have actual spirit levels. They have the liquid bubble in the middle. However, there are lots of free apps for phones and tablets that provide a visual spirit level. Since Sacks theorized that awareness of the slumping was key for the Parkinson's patient, I wonder if your wife might be able to use the app to set herself up straight. Sacks videotaped Parkinson's patients to show them how they were off balance with some success.