Is your bathroom the scariest room in your house?

Are you afraid of what may happen when you are in your bathroom? Do you stay up at night wondering just how safe your older parents are in their bathroom? If so, you are not alone. Ask anyone what is the scariest place in their home and if they have a disability or mobility/balance issues, they will probably tell you it is the bathroom. It doesn’t have to be that way.

We know instinctively that the bathroom is a dangerous place. Falls occur from slips and trips. Slips occur most often on wet surfaces. What floor do we tend to drip water on most often? Trips come from obstructions we don’t see. Which room is often small with limited storage so things may be placed on the floor or on storage shelves placed in the walkway? Many falls occur when lighting is inadequate. What room in older homes is usually lit by a single set of lights that we reduce even further when we close shower curtains? Better yet, if we wear glasses, what room do we routinely take them off in? Other falls occur when a person’s ability to balance isn’t adequate for the tasks they are engaged in. What room requires us to step over a 15” high barrier such as the side of a tub, get on the floor such as getting into a tub, bend over such as pulling up pants after toileting? To top it all off, which room of our house is so small that if we fall on the floor we are likely to block the door shut with our body so no one can get in to help us? Of course we know the bathroom is a scary place, but it doesn’t have to be.


Safety can be improved in most bathrooms with careful attention to matching the environment to a person’s abilities and a willingness to try something new. It may be as simple as a well placed grab bar or a rug to absorb moisture that is really slip resistant to. For some homes, it may be a little more involved such as replacing a standard tub with a barrier free or walk in shower, or adding a walk in tub. Thinking about making a change may be difficult, but consider the alternative.

Take a look at these facts from the article Falls Among Older Adults: An Overview the Center for Disease control www.cdc.gov

• More than one third of adults 65 and older fall each year in the United States (Hornbrook et al. 1994; Hausdorff et al. 2001).

• Among older adults, falls are the leading cause of injury deaths. They are also the most common cause of nonfatal injuries and hospital admissions for trauma (CDC 2005).

• In 2005, 15,800 people 65 and older died from injuries related to unintentional falls; about 1.8 million people 65 and older were treated in emergency departments for nonfatal injuries from falls, and more than 433,000 of these patients were hospitalized (CDC 2005).

• The rates of fall-related deaths among older adults rose significantly over the past decade (Stevens 2006).

How can we look at facts like these, know the bathroom is one of the most useful, but most dangerous places in our home, and still not take action to save ourselves and people we love?

Take action today. Educate yourself on ways to make your bathroom safer. It may be easier and less expensive than you think it will be. If you want some help planning a functional and beautiful bathroom experience give us a call. You are worth it.

Access client shares his wood working access ideas with a web site!

Another Reason Why We Love Touching People’s Lives!

When Bob contacted me to improve the accessibility of a house he and his wife had recently purchased, we sat together and discussed what was important for him to do in the house.   His determination to resume woodworking was clearly almost as important to him as being about to move through the doorways of the home and to be able to use the fixtures in the bathroom safely.  He had us work on access through the house while he worked on creating a workshop that was accessible to him.

A recent amputation meant he needed to use a wheelchair at times and he was having difficulty using his wood working techniques designed for a person who can stand and balance.   He went on line for some helpful ideas and found only one article related to wood working and access.  Bob did not let this stand in his way. He took the initiative and started the website http://wheelchairwoodworker.net/ to share his innovations of making his wood working shop safer and more accessible with other people who had similar disabilities.

Bob’s website is active in two ways; he is first documenting the transformation of his workspace from the large traditional shop he had in his previous house to two separate rooms in his house. The second way Bob uses his website is to bring people to together so they have a platform to share their thoughts and input.  Bob states that his website has been an overwhelming success and encourages people to not be afraid to speak up on his site. Bob gives a great deal of thanks to his wife, who happens to be an occupational therapist and was not afraid to encourage and push him toward recovery.

Accessibility is about making your home a place where you can do what is important to you.  Please contact me if you have any questions about removing barriers for daily activities like bathing or cooking, but also about removing barriers to enjoying recreation too.

Oasis Seated Shower System™ a new way to bathe people

Oasis Seated Shower System™  a new way to bathe people

Helping people bathe is not one of those activities that most of us spend much time worrying about.  Of course we were taught the importance of good hygiene from our parents and our mentors as we growing up.  Of course we are influenced by the multitude of advertisements for personal cleaning products.   For the most part though, we jump in and out of our showers and tubs without a lot of effort or thought about what we are doing.

When a person is unable to clean themselves, the bathing activity requires a great deal more attention.   Even if a health professional is the person doing the bathing,  being undressed and allowing someone to touch you is a process that is uncomfortable socially for most people.     If a person is unable to stand up, getting really clean around the genitals and anus may be very hard to accomplish.   Health professionals such as Nurses and Occupational Therapists spend a great deal of time and energy devising procedures and ways to help keep other people clean.  The consequences of inadequate hygiene such as UTIs (urinary tract infections) can be very debilitating, or even life threatening for people.

If reading my last paragraph made you a little uncomfortable, imagine what trying to clean someone else must be like or what having someone bathe you must be like.  

I'm really excited to present the Oasis Seated Shower System™  because I love to help people find solutions.  This technology allows really excellent cleaning with less hands on touching during the process.  People are still present and still helping with moving a person, drying them, doing little extra touches with hair, hands, or feet so there is still the one to one human contact, but some of the most uncomfortable and difficult  cleaning is taken care of with no touching.  Dangerous things like having a person with poor balance standing or leaning to the side to clean the buttocks area are eliminated.  

The Oasis is easy to use and set up.  It uses the existing shower water supply and drain so there is no construction.  It  actually uses less water than a traditional shower or tub and because water doesn't circulate inside the seat, it is a very clean and low maintenance piece of equipment.

Here is a link to another cool video about the Oasis.   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZfOsPTtWsPI
Remember, in a few short years, you will be able to say, "I was among the first to see the Oasis.  It was the start of how we bathe people today!".  


Right now I have a loaner I can take to facilities and let a few people try it out for themselves to see how much better their residents and bathing staff feel using the Oasis than they do using the old fashioned methods.    If you have any questions about how it might fit for you, give me a call 402-291-9514 or email, BPhillips@Totalrr.com.

Check out our flyer!