Daily Living Tips for the Elderly
The daily living tips for the elderly include: keeping the home safe to prevent trips and slips; providing adequate lighting, especially in areas prone to accidents; choosing furniture that meets physical needs and is comfortable; paying attention to a balanced diet; exercising moderately to maintain physical health; and maintaining social interactions to reduce loneliness. In addition, regular medical checkups and communication with doctors are also important to ensure their physical and mental health.
Safety Bathroom "Sliding Door" Design
Image from Housing Society Elderly Link
Home spaces in Hong Kong are usually narrow, including bathroom doors, which are usually only about 400-500mm wide. This creates difficulties for the elderly, as they need to lean sideways to close the door after entering the bathroom, and they may stumble in the process.
If the elderly need to use a walker or wheelchair, it is more difficult to enter the bathroom. If the elderly's physical fitness deteriorates and their balance ability is insufficient, the situation is even worse. For example, for the elderly who sit in a wheelchair for a long time, a bathroom door that is too narrow will prevent the wheelchair from entering, so the caregiver must take the risk of carrying the elderly with limited mobility to take a bath, which brings the risk of injury to both the elderly and the caregiver. In order to avoid trouble, some caregivers and elderly people reduce the frequency of bathing, which has a great impact on the hygiene and quality of life of the elderly. To solve this problem, we need to increase the width of the bathroom door or modify the bathroom door. Increase the width of the bathroom door to at least 800mm so that the wheelchair can enter and exit easily. If you don't want to remove the wall to increase the width of the door, you can consider narrowing the door frame.
In addition, replacing the open-close shower door with a sliding door is a more ideal design. Sliding doors are not only easy to open and close, but also provide a more practical bathroom space, which is not restricted by switches and is convenient for entry and exit. But please remember that the track for installing the sliding door must be placed above the door, and avoid setting it below, because the design below will create a threshold, hindering the wheelchair from entering and exiting, and it is easy to trip.
So, if you have an elderly person at home, have you ever considered that a wide bathroom door may pose a potential threat to your safety and that of the elderly? The above suggestions may be the solution you urgently need.