"There's nothing like a good soak in a warm tub
to cure what ails you," says Martha, my
76-years-young neighbor. Martha misses her
soaks, because her arthritis makes it very
difficult, even dangerous, for her to sit down
in the water. She used a bath seat and a
hand-held shower head for several years and
hated every minute of it.
Last Mother's Day her son gave her a bath lift.
Since then Martha says she has spent more time
in her tub than she has in her garden, and she's
an avid gardener.
Many of our seniors, especially the women, grew
up taking baths. A shower might have been for a
quick clean-up, but the bathtub was a place to
relax and soak away their cares. Now, getting in
and out of the tub has become risky, and many
have had to give up their baths.
In the past several years enterprising bath
supply companies have started producing walk-in
tubs. These are bathtubs with a built-in seat
and a door. The bather can open the door, walk
in, close the door, sit down and fill the tub
with water. No need to sit down on the floor of
the tub, where it's hard to get back up.
Walk-in tubs offer the advantage of easy-in and
easy out. They also have several unfortunate
features that should be considered before you
commit to an installation.
Walk-in tubs use a door. This means the tub
cannot be filled until the bather is in the tub,
and can't be left until the water has drained
out. Waiting for the tub to fill and empty can
be a chilling experience. Any bather who is
forgetful may attempt to open the door before
the water has completely drained.
Second, these tubs almost always have a narrow
door that is wider at the top than at the
bottom. Picture a door shaped like this "U".
The step-through space can be a narrow trip
hazard.
Walk-in tubs can get expensive. Research
indicates that a basic unit will start at
approximately $2,500. Add necessary installation
expenses and bathroom re-modeling and costs
could reach $6,000 or more.
An alternative to the walk-in tub is a bath
lift. A bath lift is a chair which sits in a
conventional tub. The bather sits on the chair,
which then lowers the bather into the water. At
the end of the bath, a mechanism raises the
chair back up to the level of the tub edge, and
the bather can step out. There is no need to
wait for the tub to fill and empty. These tub
lift chairs usually use suction cups to hold
them firmly in place. There is no need to cut or
modify the tub, and the unit can be removed for
other bathers.
Bath lifts seem to run from about $600 to $900.
There would be no need to pay anything
additional for re-modeling or installation.
Neither of these bathing alternatives will be
covered by Medicare. Medicare does not cover
bathroom products, so they have to be purchased
privately.
If your elder is happy using a bath chair in the
shower, then this will not be an issue for you.
However, if you're looking for bathtub
alternatives for someone who wants to bathe
instead of shower, before you make a final
choice look closely and compare both walk-in
tubs and bath lifts.
As a first pass all you have to do is type in
"bath lift" and "walk-in tub" into your favorite
browser. Remember that the first two or three
listings on the page will probably actually be
advertisements, so be sure to look at several
listings further down the page, too.
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