Single handed care options are widening, with advances in technology balanced alongside care budgets, outcomes advised by healthcare professionals, and the desires of the client.
With regard to the toilet, such technology not only enables single handed care to be achieved in reducing care support to one person, it can go as far as empowering the client to address their intimate care single-handedly, without any support or care intervention.
To help professionals involved in the provision of toilet adaptation equipment, be it in domestic or residential care settings, efficiently assess and specify the most appropriate solution, Closomat has commissioned an Occupational Therapy- led guidance document.
Closomat’s guidance- ‘Single Handed Care- Toilet Guidance for Professionals’- applies the PEO (Person Environment Occupation) model to address how to change the environment from disabling to enabling. It tabulates how use of appropriate technology- from hoists to wash & dry toilets- can reduce, or potentially eliminate- the need for care intervention.
Explains Robin Tuffley, Closomat marketing manager, “On average we go to the toilet eight times a day. It is one of the five key ADL (activities of daily living) criteria. Choice of appropriate equipment can make a huge difference in enabling someone to deal with a very intimate activity with little- or no- help from another person, be it a family member or care worker.
”Our guidance aims at providing an easy to use tool for anyone involved in delivery of care packages- in domestic or residential care environments- to get the best practical solution, balancing cost of care and the client’s health & wellbeing.”
The guidance is available for free download from Closomat’s website, www.closomat.co.uk, under the resources section.
Closomat is Britain’s leading provider of enabling toilet solutions. Its Palma Vita wash & dry toilet is the brand leader, the only one of its kind developed specifically for disabled people, and the only one that can be accessorised retrospectively to address changing circumstances.
Closomat was the first company to introduce the concept of shower toilets into the UK, (over 55 years ago,) and has now sold in excess of 50,000 such toilets. It manufactures a complete range of options- floor mounted, wall-hung and automatically height adjustable. Full details of each version, plus operating systems, technical specifications etc can be found at Closomat’s website (www.closomat.co.uk).
Uniquely, Closomat is a British company, with its head office, sales, service and support teams based in Manchester; it also uniquely offers social care & housing providers- public and private sector- a project management service whereby it can- in house- offer design and specification advice, supply, install, commission, and subsequently service of assistive toilet (and bathroom) solutions.
It is also unique in offering a commissioning visit as standard, to ensure that the WC is not only correctly and safely fitted, but that it is set up to suit the user, and they understand how it works, helping ensure stress-free delivery of independent living.
