Bathrooms
features that are beneficial to residents with Alzheimer’s or other types of dementia. When selecting the ideal bath, it is essential that healthcare providers fully consider the needs of service users, the care tasks in hand and how operational costs can be optimised.
In doing so, a well-equipped adapted care bathroom will ensure carers can implement moving and handling best practice without risk of personal injury during the transfer process, and subsequent sick leave. As Robert Myers - head of care pathways
at Ardale - who has commissioned specialist powered baths in all the provider’s purpose- built care homes, explains: “The care of our residents is important, however, so is the support of our staff. “Power-assisted movement takes the stress out of bathing by eliminating moving and handling risks and potential back injury. Our team can also engage at eye level with bathers whilst providing personal care more effectively.”
Likewise, B&M Care Homes business
development manager Angela Hunt says: “At St Brendans [in Berkshire], we provide high quality care for local authority and privately-funded residents. We are finding clients from the public sector are arriving with much higher needs, so it is essential we have the capabilities to manage and support them. This is where our powered baths are critical from a safety point of view.” With physical lifting minimised, and
transfers more manageable and less stressful, the number of required carers assisting a resident to bathe can also be safely reduced. Furthermore, specialist
baths from proven manufacturers such as those from Gainsborough Specialist Bathrooms with antimicrobial technology built-in, can provide a positive solution for greater hygiene and safeguarding sustainable care.
Since the introduction of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 and the establishment of the CQC a year later, health and social care establishments have been implementing strategies aimed at breaking the chain of cross-contamination between sources of bacteria, patients, and their caregivers.
In addition, care homes have been
required to apply more stringent measures following the challenges presented during the pandemic. Strengthened measures are particularly important in communal accessible bathrooms, with high-traffic
multiple users, which present the risk of cross- contamination between bathers and carers. Hence, specialist bathroom solutions with inbuilt antimicrobial protection that limits microbe growth, and provides 99 per cent, 24/7 protection against influenza A (H1N1),
E.coli, salmonella and CRO, CRE, VRE and MRSA are therefore now regarded as even more critical when facilitating a safe, accessible bathroom environment. By enhancing hygiene, we can support the drive to reduce staff absence caused by ill health. Uptake and implementation of assistive
equipment therefore should be greatly considered when addressing operational performance in care homes, tackling pressures on staff workload, and supporting a reduction in staff injury and sickness. As the CQC stated in The state of health care and adult social care in England 2020/21, the care workforce ‘cannot work any harder – they need support to work differently.’ Equally, by promoting improved occupational performance for residents though the installation of assistive bathing solutions, for example, carers are helping to achieve a more positive outcome for their clients. The mental and physical health benefits of bathing, as opposed to adapted showering, are frequently reported. For care home residents, including those
who may not have been able to access a bath independently for many years, a powered bath with multiple safety and therapeutic features built-in enables a more pleasant and relaxing bathing experience. Ardale’s Myers states his team “regularly sees improved mood in residents after bathing and firmly believes it strengthens mental health and wellbeing.” Much more than a way of keeping clean
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www.thecarehomeenvironment.com January 2022
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