Walk In Showers For The Elderly

Between the age of zero to death there are particular stages of life that require a little more outside help than the others. Babies and children require the guidance of their parents and elderly folks often require the assistance of their younger family. As aging takes its toll on all of us, there have been a score of developments for the house to make living easier on the elderly. Among these, walk in showers for the elderly have had great success rates at decreasing accidents within a house where residents are beginning to show sure signs of age.

Easy on the Back and Knees

Walk in showers are particularly great for older folks who have problems with their backs or knees. Everyone

including fit youngsters knows the feeling of a bad morning. Grogginess leads to dragging feet and lots of yawns: who wants to pick up their feet and jump in a shower when bed is so close? With a walk in shower, no knees have to bend to get each leg up and over the bathtub basin. There won’t be any back injuries when older folks use non-permanent fixtures like curtain rods to hold on to when getting into the shower because there are no curtains with a walk in shower. Between the back and the knees, even middle-aged folks can benefit from the convenience of a walk in shower!

Seats for Added Comfort and Convenience

Most likely the best feature for the disabled when it comes to walk in showers for the elderly are the showers that feature seats in range of the jet stream. Wheelchair bound individuals have needed seats in their showers for ages: elderly folks make great use of them as well. Rather than having no place to fall but on their hip, the elderly can land sitting if they should slip in water or get weak at the knees. For some elderly folks, standing for a long time without a cane can actually be painful – with a walk in shower complete with shower seat those folks won’t have to endure chronic back pain while struggling to finish washing. Even for those that are pretty self-sufficient, a seat in the shower is a great safety tool and can be used for additional shampoo storage until necessary.

Less Clean Up Work

Between bathtub/ shower combos and walk in showers for the elderly, the walk in showers are much easier to clean. Three walls and a curtain surround the old person taking a shower in a traditional bathroom shower setup. This means that for effective maintenance of the bathtub and shower after the water is off, the elderly man or woman needs to dry down three walls with a dry towel to avoid grout mildew and other unsanitary conditions. With walk in showers for the elderly there are two surfaces that get wet: the wall where the showerhead comes out of and the floor that you stand on while showering – that’s the extent of your drying!