Rub-a-Dub: How Safe Is Your Tub?

Tips and Technology to Make Your Bathroom a Safer Place

• By Laurie Watanabe
• Dec 01, 2012

234,000.

That’s the population of Norfolk, Va. It’s the population of Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, too. And in 2008, that was the number of people in the United States taken to the emergency room because of injuries occurring in their bathrooms, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

The CDC says the vast majority of those bathroom injuries—four out of five—can be attributed to falling, an all-too-common occurrence in rooms full of hard surfaces that get slippery when wet. And that 234,000 statistic includes people 15 and older, proving that bathroom safety is an important topic for everyone.

Fortunately, there are plenty of ways to make your bathrooms safer for yourself, your family and visitors.

Assessing Your Bathroom

Judging by how many people are injured in their bathrooms every year, many, many bathrooms could benefit from a safety overhaul. But every person’s and family’s needs are different. So before you can determine the types of improvements your bathroom needs, you need to think about:

• Who will most often use this particular bathroom? Will the bathroom mostly be used by seniors? Kids? Family members with special needs? Does the bathroom need to be used by family members with disabilities as well as those who are able-bodied?
• What challenges or disabilities do the bathroom’s main users have? Do they use wheelchairs, walkers or other mobility equipment that needs to go into the bathroom with them? Do they have low vision, or difficulties with range of motion, agility or poor balance? Do they need caregiver assistance in the bathroom? If so, how much and what type of assistance?
• What needs to be accomplished in this bathroom? Yes, bathrooms are used for toileting, washing hands and faces, and bathing. But will your bathroom also be used for getting dressed or undressed, or for grooming?

Making a Bathroom More Accessible

Once you’ve determined who will most often use a particular bathroom and what activities need to take place there, it’s time to develop your bath safety plan. A wide array of bath safety and accessibility products and strategies can make bathrooms safer and more convenient for all who use them.

The types of accessibility equipment can be divided into several major categories:

To help with balance difficulties: Grab bars provide family members of all ages safe, strong fixtures to hold onto. Grab bars are most commonly seen in bathtubs or showers so that people can hold onto them while getting in and out or while washing. But grab bars can also provide a handhold near toilets or sinks, which enable people to hold on while rising from a seated position or while brushing their teeth. Properly installed grab bars are much stronger and safer than towel bars or toilet paper holders, which are not designed or installed to support a person’s weight.

If someone in your family has trouble standing while showering, a bathtub or shower chair can provide a stable, comfortable seat. Before you’re tempted to put a regular footstool or plastic chair into the tub or shower, consider this: Bath and shower chairs are specially designed for stability in wet environments, and they don’t rust. They also typically have holes in the seat or use mesh fabrics so water and soap can drain right through or evaporate quickly. That’s important to prevent possible slipping and also to help skin to stay healthy.

To help with transfers: Bathrooms are small spaces, and it can be difficult to carry, lift and maneuver even a small child in such tight quarters. With the number of hard and slippery surfaces, bathrooms can be dangerous for both people with special needs and their caregivers.

Rather than lifting (or being lifted), consider bath transfer systems, which use seats and tracks to safely and easily slide the user from outside the bathtub to inside it, and back out again. These slider systems can also slide the user over a toilet or commode.
Ceiling lifts use tracks as well, but are installed on the ceiling. They typically carry the user from bed to bathroom, but the tracks can be configured to carry the user to other locations in the home as well.

To help with convenience and independence: Hand-held shower heads can be helpful for people who bathe themselves. More sophisticated models offer so many water pressure options that you may feel your shower has turned into a spa. Other models include eco-friendly water-conservation or low-flow options.

Shower ramps can help wheelchair users navigate over those pesky thresholds often seen in walk-in showers. Like other types of bath safety equipment, threshold shower ramps are constructed of materials that won’t rust, while nonrusting in-shower ramps also are designed so water can drain through instead of building up on the surface.

Solutions to Fit Your Style

Yesterday’s accessibility products tended to care more about function than form, which led many consumers to proclaim, “We don’t want our bathrooms to look like they belong in hospitals!”

Thankfully, those voices have been heard. You’re likely to see today’s accessibility products for the bathroom described in terms such as polished brass, oil-rubbed bronze, glacier white or brushed nickel. Many of today’s bathroom fixture lines include not only towel racks and toilet paper dispensers but also grab bars, thus ensuring that they all match each other and enabling grab bars to fit seamlessly into the bathroom’s decor. Hand-held showerheads look more like elegant sculptures than utilitarian appliances, and performance reviews from consumers are as liable to praise the product’s good looks as to talk about its awesome water pressure choices.

Even equipment for people with more complex medical needs, such as bathroom slider or transfer systems, can typically be taken apart or moved aside when not in use—or packed up to take along on a road trip or plane ride. Likewise, some bathtub grab bars can be removed or reinstalled in moments.

All this means it’s simpler than ever to find products that not only meet your bathroom needs but also fit into your lifestyle and the rest of your home.

But if you or a family member has a special challenge, it can be helpful to get advice specifically related to that disability or condition.

For example, AARP has a bathroom safety checklist for seniors who may be experiencing age-related difficulties, including low vision, problems maneuvering in tight spaces, or difficulties grasping and turning faucet handles.

The National Multiple Sclerosis Society’s checklist focuses on adjusting bathroom lighting, using hygiene and bathing accessories that help consumers with dexterity issues, and keeping the bathroom at a comfortable temperature.

People living with Parkinson’s disease often experience dizziness when getting up from the toilet or while standing at the sink, says the National Parkinson Foundation. Tips for improving bathroom safety include ideas for preventing dizziness and the loss of balance that accompanies it.

For people with impaired sensation, such as those with spinal cord injuries, safety issues include burns from hot pipes and hot water, according to FacingDisability.com. If hand or arm strength or dexterity has been affected, Facing Disability suggests it can be helpful to use lever-style doorknobs that can be pushed instead of turned, and motion-detector lights that switch on automatically.

If you’re a wheelchair user in the United Kingdom, check out the Department for Social Development’s suggestions.

Bathrooms can present a number of physical challenges, but fortunately, today’s wide array of assistive technology products—ranging from low-tech to customized high-tech solutions—are ready to make these all-important spaces safer and more convenient for all members of the family. And making those changes today can prevent future injuries for the entire family.