Hi! David Bracka here from Bacchus Marsh Retirement Living, best known for running the friendliest retirement village in Bacchus Marsh at North Victoria. Here today we just discuss a couple of points with people to let them know about some of the safety features. After spending 19 years in Senior Care Accommodation, the things I am aware of is falls prevention in the home. It’s a huge topic; it’s a huge area for accidents and illness for people living in their own homes.
Homes were designed for -- generally when you are ready to move into them and they haven’t been adapted for the length of stay that people have stayed in them. So there are many hazards, many pitfalls to be aware of in a house and some of the things that we brought into our complexes, the design features had to eliminate a lot of those risks. One of the biggest ones is falling and there are many tips and tricks but just around the bathroom area, and there are a whole lot of couple of benefits for people to be aware of. They can apply these in their own home if they like.
So number one, the showers -- come on through and follow me in here. The showers are -- the floor is always bright and so that there is no steps coming into the shower. And the benefit of that is the people don’t catch their toes and walk over. You might notice also that there is no shower screen, we have a shower curtain and the beauty of the shower curtain is that I have seen so many skin tears, people have just nicked their elbows on the shower raise it, and if got to be in the time that they are having a shower, something happens and they have a fall, they fall through the screen, injure themselves horrifically, it’s a shocking state.
So discreetly we put hand rails here so that the people can’t just gently -- shower themselves and have that bit of support where you, or not. There is a plenty of space here for a chair. A proper shower chair, you can sit down, be comfortable and also have the shower adjusted to the right correct height for you. And you can do one, it can be removed.
So that’s a couple of tips on just the shower on your own. There are few other things that I can think of and such as your easy access to towels as you get out of the shower. Lot of people are wet and they have to step back, open a door, do a few motions at one time and that dexterity or liability for somebody who is in a senior age group, sometimes it becomes a little bit difficult and that’s where we eliminated those things from.
Also one major thing that you don’t have at your home that we have put in here is an emergency risk fall system. You’ve got to be -- you are lying on the floor, you had had a fall and I will demonstrate this, you had a fall, you can easily reach the emergency call button to get 24 hour assistance here.
So that’s David Bracka, just sharing with you some tips to be safe in the shower and the benefits of rails are, you share if you like. Signing off. Stay tuned for the next in this series of health tips for you. Press the button.
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