Wet room design for PSP

[Scottoppy]

Hi All, Can you put your thinking caps on. We have just agreed to purchase a bungalow as we need single floor living for my wife's PSP. However there is a problem. The bathroom is too small to be converted to a wheelchair friendly wet room. The idea is to create a new en-suite wet room for my wife however the dilemma is that we, like many of you, have no idea how the condition will progress and therefore have no clue as to what facilities to include or make provision for in the design of the wet room. Can I ask those on the forum who have progressed to a point where you cannot walk or move without aid to say what you would have liked to have in a bathroom to make your life easier and more comfortable, carers also please respond. In ten days time I have to brief an architect and frankly I am running out of ideas. My wife now finds it very difficult to transfer to and from a wheelchair/toilet/shower chair. Three months ago she could use a rollator now she cannot. What will be the situation in the next three month or years for that matter. Any help would be most welcome.

[Yanno]

Hello there,My wife has MSA and we now have a separate forum for that. Due to the similarity with PSP, I still keep an eye on this forum which was the inspiration behind setting up the MSA one.

There was a series of posts on the MSA community about just the issues you are thinking about. The link to that is here healthunlocked.com/msa-trus...

As you will see, we were particularly pleased with the sliding door and shower toilet.

Good luck with your adaptations, Take care, Ian

[Caro2132]

My husband Mike has PSP and we had our bathroom shower redone to accommodate a roll in chair (either a shower chair or wheelchair). Luckily we had an en-suite bathroom already. We used a company that specializes in bathroom conversions to ADA standards. I think grab bars are a necessity and we have a rain shower shower head so you can just wheel the person under it, there is also a hand held shower head. It was reasonably priced and we got to choose the finishes. If you are in the USA I can PM you the info.

Good luck

Caroline

[Jimjam22]

Hi there, we made our lounge into a bedroom for my Mum, then had a wet room as a ensuite, make sure the floor level from bathroom to wet room is on the same level no lips or edges then if you need a shower commode to go in the wet room, it travels over with out any bumps, it was all tiled, on the floor we had a anti slip tile, hand rails around the shower area, no screens at all, also a hand shower and the normal big shower, the toilet was a bit taller, I also bought a strong plastic shower commode that can be used in both rooms, easily wheeled to the shower to sit and shower in. We had a large radiator to keep very warm whilst showering, also a wider door frame to get the chair in and out easily, I hope that gives you a bit to go on, good luck Julie xx

[Tippyleaf]

Dear Scottoppy

When we did our wet room we installed a Wall mounted sink and toilet. A shower chair can get closer and go over the top of the toilet which worked well. We had underfloor heating which keeps it warm and cosy. Plus the other adaptations others have mentioned. We talked with the OT beforehand which was really helpful in planning.

Hope your plans go well.

Best wishes Tippy

[Dance1955]

Well my husband is not mobile but he can weight bear just about so to transfer we use a Sarah stead very easy for one person to use you can use that’s for transferring you probably don’t need a wet room If there is hob In the shower get it taken out and made flat so your wife can just be wheeled in on her commode (with wheels )

If you can make the toilet door wider to accommodate the Sarah stedy for toileting that will save a transfer so straight on the toilet with the Sarah stedy and she will have it in front of her to feel safe

I have worked as a carer for some time but now I am caring for my husband

Please You tube the Sarah Stedy demonstration you will be surprised and when carers come in they are happy too

Hopefully your wife can weight bear or it will be a hoist transfer and that sometimes require 2 people (my husband is in year 7 of this awful desease everyone is different but similar )

Good luck

Irene 😊

[AnneandChris]

Hello thereFollowing a fall out of the ensuite shower we had to change our bathroom in the bungalow. We sought advice from our OT and commissioned our plumber to do the work. But if you are in the UK, your OT may have access to specialist companies who work for their local authorities who can be competitive and who can do the work more quickly.

My husband used a commode chair to be wheeled round the house once he stopped walking and we had a second one for his wet room so that wet didn't get wheeled round on our floors (fall hazard for me!). We had a wall mounted half pedestal basin so his chair could be moved close. The shower had no screen to give better access for his carers and the shower head had a longer lead so that it was easier for everyone.

I hope this helps, thinking of you, keep on keeping on.

Anne

[key4u]

When we moved to single floor living we got a HomeImprove grant from the council create a new en-suite bathroom and the Social Work OT designed it.

The bathroom was very large that helped with moving the shower chair around. Our Mira shower had extra long cord that reached to toilet helped. Our cabinet had a power socket for charging toothbrush. When sink and bowl were being installed we switched them which was a mistake. We thought a deeper sink would make it easier to brush teeth over and tap was a disabled one. We should have just got a standard sink with regular mixer tap because carers were ones using it and chair was posititioned away from sink. We thought taller toilet bowl would reduce gap between bowl and chair seat to prevent leakage but should have got a standard height bowl because til-in-space chair didn't fit over it. Could have done a better job of designing toilet's waste pipe and stack to give room for tilt-in-space shower chair wheels, ended up not being able to use the chair over the bowl and instead used the chair's commode pan.

The OT also installed a tracking hoist in bedroom. This was only used to transfer from bed to shower chair. Or from bed to living room Careflex chair that was wheeled to bedroom. It was not used to transfer all way to bathroom. That didn't make sense at the time but it was the right decision because person needs to be secure in a shower commode chair during bathroom visits. Hoist was only used on really tired days, on normal days during the later stages we used a powered stand aid to transfer from bed, wheeled that to bathroom and lowered on to shower commode chair positioned over toilet.

Try and avoid a join in the wet floor material near the toilet, it caused ours to split.

The one thing I wish we had was a bidet attachment on the toilet, for cleaning they had to stand up slightly on MoLift raiser and used long shower head. Turn on bidet while sitting might have done the job easier. Carers used powered stand aid for cleaning bottom.

[Sam_S]

There should be enough room for 2 people to take her in the bathroom, put her on the shower chair and give her a shower. Eventually, in the latter stages she will be be ridden, and they would have to give her a shower while she’s in bed as they do in hospital. Just make sure there’s enough room in the wet room for 2 people to move around at the same time during the shower.

[Heady]

My husband actually had a bathroom company, so I designed our en-suite. My main aim was to make sure the bathroom did not look like a hospital. I had a large walk in shower, which allowed him to be pushed in on his commode. Around the room I had lots of really chunky grab rails, my daughter said, after showering Steve once, it was like a monkey’s playground, you could swing from one rail to the next. Even now, years later, it still looks modern and one I have no problem using.

Sending big hug and much love

Lots of love

Anne

[Scottoppy in reply to Heady]

Hi Anne thanks for that info, can you post a picture of your wet rooms so I can see how to make it less 'hospital' like?

[Kasenda in reply to Scottoppy]

Please think of the Geberit toilet. It will clean and dry automatically. The best thing for my husband with PSP. Our OT suggested it.

[Sawa]

Hi,

Everyone has shared good advice above. With my husband, we converted our en-suite to be more suitable. We used to undress him and put him on the commode/shower chair in the bedroom, and then wheel him straight into the bathroom and into the shower.

We converted a bath space into a wheel-in shower. A few things we included that really helped:

1. We didn't install full length shower doors, but rather 2 short shower doors that ended just above knee height, that could fold completely flat against either the interior or exterior of the shower space. So we could completely open the space to wheel him in, and then close the doors thereafter to keep the splash in. The shorter shower doors also meant that we could stand outside the shower and easily reach in to help wash him, when he needed this. Added bonus was being able to easily reach in to turn the water on and off, and adjust the temperature, without having to reach in awkwardly.

2. We installed a shower curtain above the short shower doors. This was so once he was wheeled in, and was still able to shower himself, we closed the shower curtain to control the splash. I also used the same shower, so the shower curtain was useful for me.

3. The shower had both an overhead shower head, as well as a flexible hand shower attachment. Both were very useful and made it much easier.

I hope what I explained above makes sense. If not, let me know and I'll try and either explain a bit better or draw a picture.

Good luck!

S

[Martina_MP]

A sink adaptation that has been helpful is to have a pullout faucet. You can pull the faucet out with its hose, to wash the person’s hands without them having to put their hands far in, and it is also helpful for washing hair, for example.

Floor tile is different from wall tile; it is supposed to be less slippery, but nonslip adhesive strips help where you sense there might still be a problem.

We find a hand shower with an extra long hose (separate purchase, 9-10 feet) helpful.

[LuisRodicioRodicio]

I have made a video (quite heavy-200MG)) of our adapted WC room for my wife (PSP patient).If you are interested on specific PSP problems, related pictures or videos as:

-Video mp4 (200MG): Adaptation of a WC to a PSP patient.

-Accessories for a PSP patient. jpeg pictures

-Communication panels. jpeg pictures

-Our experiences with PSP after 8,5 years.

-Symptoms and Stages of PSP_v27.docx

-Diferent types of PSP_v9_2020-01.xlsx

Please, send a message to:

luisirasarri1@ gmail.com

I shall send you for free.

Hug and luck.

Luis

[gilman]

My husband died of PSP in April 2018. We had a wet room extension to the house built 2011. We chose a low toilet so that we could wheel the commode chair over the toilet ( obviously removing the commode bowl first). Another good choice was a shower with a long hose. Actually, rather than wheeling the commode chair into the shower area, I ended up showering David whilst the commode chair was over the loo. This proved to be the most successful way of dealing with the situation. I know the builders tried to persuade us to have a higher toilet, but it would have been useless for us. I hope this has been helpful. I know it is not an easy journey! Linda

[Cazash]

All good advice - our experience, was the half height fold away screens with curtain above were a godsend - we realised too late about the lower toilet as had already replaced with a high one - making the assumption (wrongly) that dad would be able to handle on/off with minimal help.

Some toilets as most have said can actually have a commode chair wheeled over (rather than lift the person on/off the chair - and do bear in mind that if you position the toilet basin far enough away from the wall, you can actually 'drive in' with the commode chair, (and have the person on the chair facing towards the cistern - even though the toilet bowl faces the conventional way), found that rather than try to turn it around in limited space - it worked - something relatively simple to include at design stage, but difficult to deal with later.

Apart from that - good luck with whatever you design, just bear in mind that as this awful disease progresses the person becomes less and less able to bear their own weight, so do allow plenty of room for at least 1 and if possible 2 other people to be around when the person is in the room.

[Robbo1]

After looking at a number of bungalows, we decided that it would be better staying put and living downstairs, which we did for about three years. I had part of the room next door to the downstairs toilet incorporated into the toilet room, to make it big enough to make a wet room.

We used a shower chair , wall bars in the shower and at one side of toilet , with a drop down bar at the other side.

I decided to pay for a carer to come and shower my husband each day, because I have back problems and it also gave me time to get a shower and get dressed.

I hope you manage to sort out your problems and things go well for you. Best wishes with the project.