Increasing The Safety Of The Bath Room

Often it is necessary to implement safety procedures at home, so that all areas of the home are accessible. This is because without these procedures, places like the bathroom would be very hard to use by some seniors. For the bathroom, there are actually several devices that are designed to increase safety and usability.

While there are lifting aids available to make the bathroom safer, one of the first steps of increasing safety in the bathroom should be to ensure that there are adequate handrails throughout the bathroom. This includes in the shower or bathtub, but also by the toilet and sink. These can provide an excellent tool for improving stability and preventing accidents, often being thought of as the first line of defense against bathroom accidents. In addition to providing for adequate hand rails throughout the bathroom, it is also a good idea to have non-skid mats placed in the bathroom.

Once the guard rails are in place, attention can turn to choosing the best type of mobility lifting aid for the given situation. The two actions that are typically most difficult and most dangerous are getting into and out of the bathtub and safely using the toilet. Both of these actions require bending down rather low, with getting into the bathtub consistently ranked as the most difficult of the two. As a result, the bath lift is the most common type of bathroom lifting aid.

Bath lifts are designed to provide a means of increasing safety and independence. They are generally installed into a bath tub, providing a chair that the user can sit in. The chair is lowered into the bathtub, then up again when the user has completed their bath. Depending on the model, the chair might recline or be one solid piece of plastic. They are easily installed in most cases, using suction cups so there is no need to modify the bathtub. A rechargeable battery pack is used to raise and lower these devices, so there is no concern of electrical outlets or hanging wires.

Most bath lifts make use of a plastic chair as their lifting aid, but there are some models that use an air filled plastic cushion instead. Operating similarly to an air-filled mattress, these kinds of bath lifts can be quickly expanded, then the air released, which lowers the user into the bathtub. These also use a suction cup securement system, and when folded up take up much less space than a regular bath lift. As a result, this, coupled with their light weight, makes these lifts well suited for traveling.

For a number of people, the bath lift is the most oft used lifting aid in the bathroom. It makes it much easier to get into or out of the bathtub and can help ensure independence.