How to Design a Bathroom for Senior Members of Home

Old persons are more likely to slip and fall into the house. Some people even have problems maintaining balance, so for them that’s worse. Furthermore, falling in the dormitory differs from falling on the slippery wet floor of the bathroom, the latter can cause bad bruises, breakage or death in the worst case. Consequently, it is important to design and protect a safe bathroom for seniors.

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 Injured 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

Make sure a high toilet Seats, especially for seniors with arthritis or knee joint pain, is used when building a bathroom. Hold the height of your toilet up to 3-4 pounds to assist your parents or any elderly person, who has problems getting to your normal toilet seat, making it easy for elderly people to sit.

Install Hand Grab Bars

In order for older people to have comfortable bathrooms, install hand-built bars where your parents believe their support would be needed. Place an intake bar near the toilet, in the tub, near the bathroom and near the sink, for example.

This will provide more support for seniors, especially on slippery, watery floors, who are more prone to falling. The next point of the list of designs for senior-friendly bathrooms is the need for skid-free matts.

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 as without skids, anti-slip tiles are also available in the bathroom so that the risk of falling is minimised. In addition to adding an additional security feature to your bathroom for senior citizens, rubber stained tiles are durable, cost-effective and have different stylish designs to avoid worrying about home décor when they are being installed.

If you want to install the tiles yourself, see our guide about tile floors for a bathroom like a professional!

Lighting

Use the right lights and locations. At age, vision is also affected and your parents are less likely to see everything in the dim light. The bathroom lighting is always a good idea to make it more secure.

Use display lights in particular areas, such as the toilet rack, next to the sink, to provide better visibility of important bathroom areas.

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.