Remodel your Home for Accessibility
Usually, reduced mobility is a gradual process and simply part of growing older. With a stairlift, there’s no need to limit your daily journeys up and down stairs or to consider even moving. Learn ways to adapt your home today.
If your physical mobility becomes impaired, the home you’ve enjoyed for so long may no longer meet your changing needs. Usually, reduced mobility is a gradual process and simply part of growing older. Also, it could happen more abruptly, maybe due to an illness or accident. In either case, you could find yourself struggling to move around your own home safely and easily.
If the change is extreme, such as becoming fully reliant on a wheelchair, you might need to find a new home. That way it can better suit your changed circumstances. But in most cases, there are lots of simple adaptations that can be made to your existing home to render it ‘user-friendly’ again. For example, replacing low seating with high seat chairs or electric riser-recliners can make standing up and sitting down a lot easier. Similarly, replacing your bed with one that stands higher off the ground, or is electrically-adjustable, is another great way to adapt your surroundings to meet changing needs.
In the bathroom, if you struggle to get in and out of the bath, helpful aids include bath seats, powered bath lifts, or accessible baths with an opening door. You could even replace the bath with a walk-in shower, complete with seating. Handrails or grab rails can be fitted at key locations around the home, wherever you need a helping hand or a bit of extra support. These days, many of them are stylishly designed, with an attractive finish, so your home doesn’t need to resemble a medical facility.
Another option to consider is a ‘Personal Emergency Response System’ for your home. While not strictly a home adaptation, it will bring extra peace of mind for you and those who care about you, especially if you live alone. There are various types available, all designed to summon help at the touch of a button should you need it. Perhaps the single most beneficial change you could make to your home is installing a stairlift. For people with reduced mobility, it’s typically represented the biggest challenge and the biggest threat to personal safety. Any fall can be serious, but a fall on the stairs could be disastrous.
With a stairlift, there’s no need to limit your daily journeys up and down stairs or to consider living on the ground floor or even moving. A stairlift eliminates the obstacle of stairs, effectively turning your two-story home into a bungalow. Today’s stairlifts are designed to be unobtrusive and blend well into a domestic setting. Combined with some of the other home adaptations mentioned above. A stairlift can transform a property that has become problematic into one that is comfortable, welcoming, and homely again.