Essential Bathroom Renovations for In-home Age Care
If you are taking on the responsibility of aged care in your home, you will soon realise that your house could be a safety hazard for their fragile body. And one of the rooms that are most prone to accidents involving senior citizens is the bathroom. It is not enough to relegate a ground floor bathroom for their exclusive use. You would also have to go about proofing the space to make sure that your loved one will be able to navigate the room without being in jeopardy of harming themselves. This article outlines a few of the essential bathroom renovations that would lend your residence some semblance of a home dementia respite.
Install grab bars
The first addition you should consider when remodelling your bathroom or a senior loved one would be the installation of grab bars in the room. The grabs bars should be fitted around the bathroom walls, under the showerhead, adjacent to the toilet, next to the sink and any other area that you think your loved one would need support as they utilise the bathroom. An important consideration when installing these grab bars would be ensuring that they are also fitted with anchoring devices that are capable of holding several hundred pounds of weight. This enhanced stability would minimise any risk of the grab bars coming off their studs if they are pulled at with a lot of force.
Install a shower seat
IF you do not have a tub in your bathroom, you may be considering placing a plastic seat in the shower to make it easier for your loved one to wash. However, what you may be overlooking is that plastic chairs can easily slide on the wet bathroom floor, and this can lead to severe injuries to your loved one. A more secure solution would be to have a seat installed directly into the shower. One option would be a portable chair that is locked into the wall using brackets, especially if the shower is small and used by other residents in the home. The second alternative would be having a shower bench built directly onto the wall with matching materials to provide a functional yet seamlessly aesthetic solution to this need.
Install a raised toilet
You may not put much thought into accessing the toilet, but this can be quite treacherous for senior citizens as conventional toilets are quite low. Having to bend or squat would increase the risk of your loved on falling over. Therefore, you may want to consider installing a raised toilet, which would acclimate easy mounting and dismounting. Side handles would also be great accessories to enhance the transition on and off the toilet seat.
