Bath lifts

[news]

Does anyone have experience of bath lifts.

This is for a frail nonagenarian who lives by herself in a bungalow.

The major problem is stepping out of the bath

AJH

[yendor]

Have you considered a Walk in bath?

I fitted one for my mother a few years ago, and it has been great.

[David.WE.Roberts]

I think bath lifts are usually to help a third party get someone in and out of the bath.

As already suggested, a walk in bath or a shower could be a more sensible answer.

Cheers

Dave R

[GB]

Out of interest, how does that work in practice? Mother strips off, opens the bath door, walks in, closes door, and sits down. I've got all that. But it's what happens next that bothers me. Mother fills bath with water. That's going to be a slow process, with a risk of scalding, and mother sitting on the seat shivering. When she empties it, that's also going to be slow, with mother soaking wet and catching a chill.

Or is there some better way of doing this?

[rbel]

Sorry, no experience of bath lifts but other than a walk in shower with a (fold down) seat, another possible alternative, depending on just how frail the lady is, is a low sided bath. When we refurbed our bathroom six months ago we specified a Carronite Axis low sided bath. The side height is 48 cms and it is noticeably easier to get in and out of. The depth is a bit less than a standard bath but it is still very usable - they have dropped the base of the bath to partially compensate for the reduced side height. Handles and wall mounted handrails could be added for extra safety.

[news]

Yes this is probably the next step but takes some extra organising.

In my case she can get into a bath OK and presumably the bath can be filled from a thermostatic tap.

It's waiting during filling and emptying that's problematic.

Lying down in the bath is a small pleasure to be enjoyed and she is not comfortable with showering.

AJH

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[Peter Parry]

They stick to the bath floor with plunger type feet (so don't work well on stippled bath floors) and have two side panels which keep the occupant from getting trapped between seat and bath. When fully up it is usually simple to swivel out of the seat onto a side bench. I have a couple of bath lifts you are welcome to try (and keep if they do the job).

[Bill]

In message , [e-mail] writes

I've had good and bad experiences with a webbing belt lift. Check back

6-12 months for a thread, "how to con an OAP" or similar title.

The good experience was that the lift gave my mother, late 80s, an easy way to get in/out of the bath. It is basically a 12" wide webbing strap firmly attached to the floor beside the bath and a 12V, battery powered winch attached to the wall on the other side of the bath. The idea being that to get in she winches the strap tight across the bath and sits on it, then allows the winch out to lower her into the bath, to get out just reverse the process.

It works very well and is comfortable and well made.

The down side was the company that supplied it, some very dodgy, worthy of a Watchdog sting.

I'm sure there are some good suppliers out there, but certainly avoid some of the adverts in the national news papers, look for decent personal recommendations maybe.

If you are interested in one like this I have the manufacturers details some where, not sure if they sell to the public, but worth a try and a lot cheaper than some of the resellers. I have no gripes with the manufacturer, they make a good product, just one particular reseller. It would be a simple DIY job to install.

[harry]

The other option is a shower seat fixed in the cubicle. (if there is a shower)..

On the cold thing, some sort of radiant electric heater. Obviously at high level with a pull switch. Depends on the bathroom layout.

[harry]

There is a thing you can buy called a "Steel Nurse". Basically a seat with a hoist to get people in and out of a conventional bath. Often they can't step over.

Needs a bit of space around the bath though.

BTW you maybe able to get financial assistance with this. See your local quack who can put you in touch with various local health departments/charities.

The problem with people with disabilities is that bathroom & toilet facilities need to be specially designed for them. And quite big. And things will get worse in the future, any solution you come up with will only be temporary.

[Jethro_uk]

SWMBO uses one called "AquaJoy"

(looking at their range I guess her's is the "saver")

Quite ingenious. The base has a scissor action. The back clips into the base and houses the drive. You plug the battery pack in, press "up" and the drive extends to push on the base, lifting the chair till it's level with the bath. Neat thing is it's easily removed for cleaning or if an able bodied person wants a bath.

[GB]

I suppose that you'll just have to persuade her to have the bathroom super-warm before she starts the bathing process. However, many elderly folk are not that flush with money, so getting them to do that is problematic.

[yendor]

Thats about it, If you start running bath before putting plug in and get water temp right, there is no risk of scalding or freezing. They come equipped with double wastes so empty twice as quick as a normal bath.

[Roger Mills]

We had one when we had my 90+ f-i-l living with us.

It's just a seat mounted on a pillar which fixes to the bottom of the bath with 4 big suckers. It had a rechargeable battery and a wired remote control. The seat had a hinged flap either side which rested on the edge of the bath in the UP position and folded out of the way as the seat went down.

The bathing procedure was:

1. Raise the seat to the UP position
2. Fill the bath to the desired level
3. Sit on seat sideways over the edge of bath, and swing legs into bath
4. Lower seat to DOWN position, and wash
5. Raise seat to UP position, swing legs out of bath, and step away
6. Empty bath and lower seat to DOWN position (for safety)
7. Re-charge battery ready for next time

I always helped my f-i-l to have his bath, but the device was designed to be operated by the bather him/herself without anyone else needing to be present.