How do you help someone up on to their feet?

Yeah dumb question but one of those things I’m never sure if I’m doing right.

So you’re helping an elderly person stand from a sitting or kneeling position say. Or a young person who has fallen over and you’re trying to be nice.

Main question: do you just keep your arm steady, essentially a human handrail, or should you also pull them up?
Other questions include one hand or two, height of hand etc.

I help my grandmother up, I offer my right hand, she grabs my forearm, and I lean over slightly. As she is using my arm as a support to pull herself up, I move to an upright standing position, helping pull her up as I stand straight. When she is sitting, I lean over so my arm is slightly lower than her nose, about a foot and a half or more away from her. She can get up without me pulling, I just feel off balance when she does, so I pull. Also,mu legs are staggered, left in front of right, giving her room.

Two handed doesn’t work for her. I hurt my back and she can’t get up without using her other hand to push.
Basically, let them tell you where to stand, and what to do the first few times. And as you do it more often, you will figure out what works best for you and the elderly person.

It’ll depend on familiarity, degree of mobility weight of sitting person, etc.

Facing the sitting person, embrace him (your arms go under his and come together on his back), press your knees against his and lift to standing position. I don’t know if there’s a risk of back injury for either party, but if the sitting person is heavy, it’s just about the only way to get the job done in a dignified manner.

I would do this only for a heavy elderly person who is comfortable with that kind of physical contact (you end up in a full-contact hug) or someone in need. So, for strangers, younger people, etc. I’d offer an arm and let them do most of the work.

In this case, offer a hand (you can put a foot against his, similar to the technique described above).

I’ve never had actually pulling them up (with the arm method) actually work. It’s always just giving them something firm to hold onto. Pulling leads them to be unsteady and my needing to compensate.

I’ve actually had someone pull me up, and that did work, though it startled me. They pulled entirely up instead of forward. I went slightly off the ground, though, so I don’t dare try that on others.

When I fall (due to blindness, I do frequently), I never get hurt, so I prefer that people stand back and let me get up by myself. I have my own way of getting to my feet, and I don’t want anybody interfering with my balance.

Elderly or handicapped people and young people are two utterly different situations. As are obese or not.

IME …

For an able-bodied person, including elderly with good balance, I stand facing them, extend two hands, grasp their outstretched hands, and they pull up as I pull back. By me grasping their hands we won’t become detached even if their grip falters.

If the person has any balance issues or major strength issues that’s not safe. They could get halfway up then topple to the side or have a leg collapse and I wouldn’t be able to control the rest of what happens.

So for those harder cases it’s a lot more hands-on as others have described above. You need to do most of the lifting and controlling the motion, but also not squeeze or pull on anything hard enough to damage it. Folks with little muscle strength usually also have frail bones and weak joints. Folks with balance issues can go sideways in an instant and suddenly you’re holding a couple hundred pounds of writhing meat. A half-controlled set-down on the floor is probably all the good that’ll get.

Holding out an arm for somebody else to pull on is fine for kids and that’s about it. It definitely won’t work safely on the infirm.

My aunt and uncle had to help an elderly guy get off the ground the other day, while visiting my grandma’s retirement village. The guy was on his knees in a mulched garden bed, so my aunt grabbed him by his belt and hoisted him to his feet (after explaining what she was going to do).

I help Ivylad all the time. Basically, I’m just a brace for him. I don’t pull on him. He uses my forearm to steady himself so he can get upright.

Someone in apparently good health I offer my hand and will pull them up if needed. For someone more frail I offer a hand or arm and see what they want to do or need.

It’s been proven recently that calling the person “a son of a bitch” is ineffectual.

I ask the person/victim what they prefer and then proceed from there. If its someone fallen say off a curb or step and they are totally on the ground, I go under the arms from behind like I learned ages ago in ROTC.

Like folk say, ask for preference. Often, someone will prefer no assistance. IME, difficulty occurs when someone tries to help one way, and the other person reacted in unanticipated ways. Sometimes bystanders seem in a rush to help the other person up, when the first person might prefer to stay down and assess their situation for a bit.

It can also help to grasp each other’s wrists, instead of clasping hands. Some folk have weak/sore hands, and even if they have difficulty grasping hands, you can still have a firm grasp on their wrist.

Another good option is to assist them from behind with both of your hands under their arms. Squat and stand with your legs as they stand. But that requires that they know what you are doing.

Yep. Better to stick with the old “grabbing them” by the hoo hah.

My neighbor is fat and elderly. Several times a year I am called over to help him up off the floor after a fall. I’m reasonably big and strong, but he is quite heavy. My goal is only to get him from his original position (face down on the floor) to a kneeling position in front of a sturdy chair, then help boost him as he hoists himself up.

I use a long, sturdy beach towel. I run it under his armpits, across his chest. I stand over him. straddling his torso, holding one end of the towel in each hand. This is similar to Dinsdale’s suggestion, except it gives me a much better position to lift from- standing instead of squatting.

I think this is a good strategy for when you’re really lifting a person, as opposed to just giving them a hand up. It allows for good leverage, minimizes the risk of injury to yourself, and gives good control to the lifter, minimizing the risk of the liftee falling back down.

I honestly thought this was going to be a thread about Von Miller.

When you see someone fall in the street, you absolutely do not rush over, grab their arm and try to haul them to their feet. This has happened to me on a few occasions and it is the last thing I want when I may be shaken up and unsure if I have hurt myself. Wait a bit, tell other “helpers” to wait and see if the person is OK and then offer any help they may need.

I was heading to the guy early one morning, and as I was waiting to make a turn, I saw a woman across the street, struggling to get up. She had one of those wheeled walkers with a seat, and it wasn’t stable enough to allow her to pull her self up.
I drove up to her, got out, and asked if I could help her. She said yes, and I let her use my arm to pull herself up, but either her legs were tired from struggling, or she just wasn’t strong enough, and couldn’t do it. I got her to her knees, and said that the only way we were going to get her up was for me to squat down and put my arms around her belly and lift her up. She agreed to this. She was a big woman (probably 30-50 lbs. heavier than me), and I told her that I needed her to help me once I got her off of her knees. So we did the one-two-three thing, and I heaved her up, and she was able to stand once she got out of a crouch.

This was really eye-opening to me. The whole “I’ve fallen and I can’t get up” meme was really brought home. If I hadn’t stopped, she would never have been able to get up herself (and , this was when I was going to the gym at 5AM, and it was cold and dark outside).

My friend who worked in a nursing home taught me that.

First, ask the person if they need help getting up. If they do, offer your arm. If they are having trouble doing it themselves, ask how they can best help you.

In short: ASK, then proceed if they say yes.