Facilities to make life easier for seniors in their homes

Today, there are many possibilities for special arrangements to make life easier for seniors on a daily basis. These facilities can also be used for people with disabilities, reduced mobility or visual impairments. All these different means, in particular thanks to home automation, will make it easier to use homes. There are a number of features and devices that make it easier to access and use housing for the elderly or senior citizens. If you need to modify your home to accommodate an elderly or disabled person, here are some ideas for improvements you can make to a home, whether it is a collective dwelling, an individual dwelling or a retirement home. How to equip a home to facilitate accessibility? First of all, you should know that you can benefit from a tax credit for these improvements to facilitate the life of an elderly person. Access to the bathroom should be rethought. To do this, make provision for the movement of a wheelchair while facilitating use by people with other disabilities. For example, the washbasin and its accessories: taps, towel rails, mirrors, etc. must be able to be used in a sitting or standing position. The height of the equipment should be between 90cm and 130cm from the floor. For an installation intended for the elderly, it is necessary to leave a space by using a suspended basin, this free space must allow the passage of the legs with the use of a wheelchair (count 70cm). The thickness of the washbasin must be 13 cm. For a vanity unit, the free space should be 60 cm wide and 30 cm deep. It is also possible to install a washbasin with variable height. In order to reduce the dependency of the elderly, the design of the bathroom must meet certain criteria. The shower should allow easy and safe access, although the current preference is for walk-in showers into which a shower wheelchair can easily enter. Avoid the full shower enclosure with a step. Some shower equipment makes it easier for older people with motor difficulties to get in and out of the shower: retractable or wall-mounted shower seats, shower benches with handles, handrails and handicapped grips, a long hose with a shower head. It is also possible to install an opening bath: the walk-in bath. However, this has some disadvantages: high threshold, obligation to wait for the water to empty before getting out.