Old people are more prone to slipping and falling in the house. Some even have issues keeping balance, so it’s worse for them. Also, experiencing a fall in the bedroom is quite different than falling on the slippery wet bathroom floor; the latter can cause nasty bruises, a fracture or, in the worst-case scenario, death. Therefore, it is important to design a safe bathroom for senior citizens and protect them from any harm.
Let us check that out.
In This Post:
Susceptible Areas for Injuries in Bathrooms
Make Dangerous Bathrooms Safe for Elderly
Additional Bathroom Safety Features
Tips to Design a Bathroom for Senior Citizens
For the elderly, a visit to the bathroom can also turn into a dangerous affair because of the risks involved. There are simple ways you can create a safe bathroom for your parents or loved ones. Let’s check them out.
- Have raised toilet seats
- Install hand grab bars
- Non-slip mats (non-slip adhesive strips on the sink)
- Anti-slip tiles
- Put toiletries within easy reach
Before we discuss how you can make the bathroom a safer place for senior citizens, let us first explore what causes most injuries in a bathroom.
How Do Most Injuries Occur in Bathrooms?
Common causes of an injury in a bathroom are as follows:
- Sitting down on the toilet seat or getting up from it
- Going for a bath; getting inside a tub or shower cabin
- Walking on the slippery wet floor after a bath
- Holding the sink while getting up
- Towel racks that can fall apart when holding it
- Tripping while sliding doors when entering or exiting the shower area
There are plenty of ways you can make bathrooms safer for seniors. Let’s check them out.
Make Dangerous Bathrooms Safe for Elderly
In a safe home for senior citizens, make sure to implement these design elements in your bathroom to reduce the risks of falling and tripping over.
Raised Toilet Seats
When constructing the bathroom, make sure to have a raised toilet seat, especially for seniors suffering from arthritis or knee joint pain. To aid your parents or any elder person who has trouble lowering themselves onto the normal toilet seat, keep the height of the toilet seat raised by 3-4 inches, making it easier for seniors to sit down.
Install hand grab bars
To have elderly-friendly bathrooms, install hand grab bars at places where you think your parents would need extra support. For instance, place a grab bar near the toilet seat, in the shower area, near the bathtub and also near the sink.
This will provide greater support to senior citizens who are more susceptible to falling, especially on wet slippery floors. This also highlights the need for skid-free mats – the next point on our list of designing senior-friendly bathrooms.
Non-slip mats
Place a non-slip mat near the bathtub, in the shower area and also near the sink where during ablution the water can make the floor wet, making it more slippery.
If there is a bathtub, you can place these rubber mats inside the tub as well to minimize the risk of falling while taking a bath. Outside the shower, place non-slip rugs anywhere you think seniors are most likely to fall.
You can also place skid-free mats right outside the bathroom so that your loved one can easily come out of the washroom without any problem. These skid-free mats can reduce the risk of falling and trip hazards.
Anti-slip tiles
Just like skid-free mats, anti-slip tiles can also be installed in the bathroom to minimize the risk of falling. Apart from adding an extra bathroom safety feature for senior citizens, anti-slip tiles are durable, cost-effective and come in various stylish designs so you don’t have to worry about your house decor while installing them.
If you are looking to install these tiles yourself, check out our guide on how to tile a bathroom floor like a pro!
Put toiletries within easy reach
In order to design a safe bathroom for senior citizens, make sure to place the toiletries within easy reach. Don’t keep the toiletry rack too high where seniors can lose their balance in reaching out for the shampoo; also, don’t keep it too low, where they have to bend down in order to get their hands on the handwash.
Keep the shampoo bottle and bath soap in a rack or cabinet just above the bathtub or shower chair so that they don’t have to get up and take it while bathing.
Additional Bathroom Safety Tips for Seniors
There are a few safety elements to keep in mind when designing a bathroom for senior citizens. Let’s check them out.
Lighting
Use appropriate lighting and at the right places. In old age, vision also gets affected and it is less likely that your parents would be able to see everything clearly in dim light. It is always a good idea to amp up the lighting in the bathroom to make it safer.
Use show lights in specific areas like above the toiletry rack, near the sink to illuminate important areas in the bathroom for better visibility.
Doors
Make sure the doors swing outwards because if the elderly person in your home, God forbid, falls in the bathroom, against the door, it is easier for you to open the door and rescue them.
Emergency Call
If it is possible, install an intercom in the washroom for any emergency situation. If the senior citizen feels dizzy or unsafe, they can inform the caregiver on the intercom present inside the bathroom.
Regular Cleaning
Frequent cleaning of the bathroom is helpful in making the bathroom safer for senior citizens. Routine cleaning can remove the soap scum in shower areas that make the surface extra slippery. Also, avoid the clutter in the bathroom from time to time to reduce tripping hazards.
So, these were some of the best ways to design a safe bathroom for senior citizens. If you are building a house, then check out how you can create an elderly-friendly home.
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