Using the washroom independently is key to the dignity of a care home resident, but toilets and bathrooms can be confusing, even hazardous environments. Gina Court, hygiene advisor at Tork manufacturer Essity, looks at ways of equipping the care home washroom to help protect residents’ privacy while also maintaining their dignity and keeping them safe
Washrooms and bathrooms are an integral feature of everyone’s daily life. Besides their obvious function, these rooms are the places where we go to clean up and where we practise good hand hygiene to protect ourselves – and others – from infections.
So, for that reason, washrooms play a particularly crucial role in the care home, where unchecked infections could quickly run rife whenever cleanliness and hygiene have been compromised.
However, a typical bathroom can be a bewildering, even frightening place for an elderly care home resident. A combination of bright lights, glaring white surfaces, noisy extractor fans, and multiple mirrors will potentially have the power to confuse and disorientate.
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