One Fall Can Change it All

One fall can change it all!

Each year  approximately 36 million people, over the age of 65, fall, and about 1/5th of those result in serious injury,

Bathrooms are one of the most common places for a fall to occur,

Bathrooms are often wet, which makes every surface a potential danger zone,

Making a few alterations, can make your bathroom a safer and a more enjoyable experience,

First, let’s examine the bathing experience, if one has a bath/shower situation where they step over the bathtub to get in an out of the shower, this can be hazardous, and swapping the tub out for a walk in shower can eliminate the need to step over the tub,

If that’s not in the budget, sometimes eliminating shower doors can provide more room to step over the tub, and just using a shower curtain, it may not look as nice, but safety trumps aesthetics in certain instances,

An extremely economical change one can make, is changing out a shower head to a handheld shower head combination, combined with a shower seat, one can sit wile showering, especially if mobility/stability is a concern,

In the shower, or bath, one should have well positioned grab bars to add that extra level of safety, within the shower or bath, getting in and out of the shower or bath, getting up and down from the toilet, and in more serious cases…toilet railings,

Another area to examine is the floor, non slip rugs can be helpful, but they can also create a trip hazard,

Tile is commonly used in bathrooms due to being durable, water resistant, and it also looks good, unfortunately tile becomes extremely slipery when wet, and it’s hard and unforgiving if one falls,

Luxury Vinyl Plank, AKA—LVP is a great way to create a waterproof, soft, non-slip surface that looks great, the best part, it can be installed directly over tile, extra padding can be installed under the LVP to create an even softer surface should one ever fall,

Lighting is also important in baths and showers, adding extra LED overhead lights can really brighten up a bath, therfore making it easier to see and prevent a fall,

Painting the walls with brighter colors can also add more light as well

Lastly, adding or upgrading ones exhaust fan can help to eliminate condensation, making surfaces less wet, moreover, less slipery, exhaust fans have come along way…some of them come with a humidity sensor that comes on and off automatically when humidity is detected,

So, whether your budget is $500 or $5000 there are changes that one may want to take care of sooner than later,

We don’t want to become a statistic,