The ceiling lift was designed to provide physically disabled people, and the elderly with the ability to move from one room to another in a simpler, safer, and more dignified manner. There are many overhead lift varieties available not only to assist these individuals but to assist caregivers as well.

There are two main types of ceiling lifts:

The portable ceiling track system has a lift motor that is suspended from a wheeled carriage. This carriage travels within a track mounted on the ceiling. Normally, a length of track is installed in the bedroom for transfers into and out of your bed. A second length of track would be installed in the bathroom allowing you to transfer to and from the toilet, bathtub or your shower chair.

A patient can first be transferred to their wheelchair in their bedroom, the lift disconnected, the lift and patient wheeled to the bathroom, the lift connected to the bathroom track, and then the patient is transferred to the toilet or bath tub. The lift motor can be simply moved by a caregiver from one track to another.

The second type is the permanent ceiling track system where the ceiling track is installed throughout the house through a variety of connectors, carousels, and joints. This allows the lift to move to any room in the house where transfers need to be performed.

While all ceiling track systems use an electric motor to lift and lower the patient, most manufacturers offer a unit that has a second motor which will power the unit along the track. This power-traversing unit is very helpful if patients want to move themselves. In some cases, patients are able to put on their own slings, lift themselves and propel themselves throughout their home making their transfers totally independent.

A ceiling lift, sometimes referred to as a residential lift, can be installed in homes, therapy clinics, hospitals, swimming pools and other locations to provide physically disabled people with increased mobility and improved quality of life.