AGE-FRIENDLY HOUSING- ADAPTABLE AND ‘CARE READY’

Guidance billed as ‘a new bar for the design of future housing for an ageing population’ is reiterating the need for homes to be adaptable and ‘care ready’.

One of the simplest means of ensuring that is met is by specifying a toilet that can evolve with people’s changing needs, says Closomat.

“The guidance [Age Friendly Housing: Future Design for Older People] reminds us that when we talk about older people, we are not talking about other people, but ourselves,” says Robin Tuffley, Closomat marketing manager. “The book emphasises that well-designed buildings can facilitate the provision of care, support independence and wellbeing- points we can verify from new build and retro-fit installations we have undertaken and project managed.

“If we’re talking about ourselves, consider: would YOU want someone to help you go to the toilet, help you on and off the WC, wipe your bottom? It is one of the most intimate activities we undertake, and we all do it, several times a day. Specifying an appropriate WC, such as a shower/wash dry toilet, delivers optimum wellbeing, and is more than care ready: it can even eliminate the need for care support.”

Closomat’s range of shower toilets reflect contemporary design, with floor-standing and wall-mounted options that can be configured to individual choice- even in terms of concealed cistern, back panels, flush mechanisms. Uniquely, they can be personalised to individual user needs initially and retrospectively, so can evolve as the user ages to accommodate changing circumstances, mobility and dexterity.

The company’s website (www.clos-o-mat.com) is the ‘go to’ resource for specifiers involved in designing for ageing and/or disabled people, with a raft of white papers, NBS specifications, CAD blocks to simplify the process and deliver an appropriate, compliant solution.

The expertise within the company represents the combined wealth of knowledge amassed from almost 60 years of helping disabled people optimise their dignity and independence in the bathroom, at home and away.