Bathroom Fall and Injury Prevention Safety Tips
The bathroom in your loved one’s home may pose a threat to their safety. Falls are the most common cause of major injuries in seniors, and the bathroom is the most common room in the house for falls.
Because of this, you’ll need to take precautions to ensure that your loved one’s bathroom is a safe environment. In this article, our team at Visiting Angels of Riverside County will highlight 7 ways you can help your elderly loved ones avoid bathroom falls and injuries.
Bathroom Safety Tips for Seniors
Add Grab Bars
A grab bar is an additional railing you can add to your senior loved one’s bathroom. These safety devices are great tools for bathroom fall prevention and can be permanently installed or attached via suction cups for ease and flexibility of use. An extra place to hold onto can help your loved one more safely use the toilet, shower, and sink in their bathroom!
Adding Non-Slip Surfaces
When water spills from a faucet or steam from the shower builds up, the tile, linoleum, wood, and other materials on your loved one’s floor can become very slippery. To prevent accidental slips from moisture on the floor without renovating the entire bathroom floor, you can place non-slip mats on the ground that provide better traction and do not become slippery when wet.
Improve Accessibility
If your loved one has to reach up high or down low to grab things like shampoo, body wash, soap, or other bathroom necessities, it’s possible that they may fall in the process. Take a look through your senior loved one’s bathroom for anything that is too high or too low to be accessed without reaching. Then, move these items to a safer height, around your loved one’s eye level. If you need additional storage at that height, many companies make suction cup shower caddies!
Remove Tripping Hazards
Like any other room in the house, there may be things on the floor that your loved one can trip over. Things like wastebaskets, loose rugs, and trash can easily lead to falls if they are in the way while your loved one is trying to navigate the bathroom. Regularly perform a thorough check of your loved one’s bathroom to ensure that nothing is blocking the walkways or places where your loved one will need to step.
Prevent Overexertion
Overexertion is the second most common way that seniors hurt themselves, and toileting and bathing can put a strain on seniors’ bodies. To make these activities less strenuous, add raised toilet seats, shower chairs, and a chair in front of the sink. With these additions, your loved one will use less energy and be less susceptible to overexertion.
Improve Lighting
Needing to use the bathroom in the middle of the night is a common concern for seniors. To help make late-night bathroom trips less hazardous, line the walkways of your loved one’s hallways and bathroom with nightlights. These lights can guide your loved one through the dark without interrupting their sleep as much as overhead lights would. For the daytime and evening, make sure your loved one’s overhead lights are sufficiently bright enough to illuminate the whole bathroom.
Watch Water Temperatures
It’s important to be cognizant of the temperature of the water in your senior’s bathroom. If the water in the sink, bath, or shower goes above 120f, it’s possible that this can cause burns, as seniors’ skin is usually more sensitive.
Visiting Angels Can Help Your Loved One Stay Safe in the Bathroom!
Our in-home caregivers at Visiting Angels of Riverside County can help your loved one with bathing, toileting, grooming, and other bathroom activities. If you’d like to learn more about our personal care services, contact our team via our online contact form or at (951) 727-4357 today!