Bathing Tips for the Elderly

Professional and family caregivers agree that bathing is one of the greatest challenges they face.  Seniors, especially those with some dementia, often avoid bathing as it can cause feelings of unease.  These feelings are typically heightened when there’s been a fall or negative experience. Adding in wheelchairs or any type of limited mobility can make bathing all the more difficult.

Through consultations with caregivers and health care professionals, Silvert’s worked to develop a product that would help ease some of the difficulties seniors and disabled adults face in bathing routines.  We focused on 4 key areas when trying to develop our unisex Terry Shower Cape – a fantastic solution to aid with bathing routines:

Pain Reduction:

Since the process of preparing to bathe, getting into the bath or shower, and washing up can all add up to be severely taxing on the aging body, we designed our shower cape to assist with drying off after the shower.  Whether an individual is wheelchair bound or merely requires assistance when bathing, the shower cape is incredibly helpful for the caregiver and the wearer when it comes to reducing pain.  It simply goes on over the head after bathing is complete.   The opening of the cape expands ensuring minimal strain to the wearer.  There are no sleeves so arms don’t even have to be raised.  The cape is ideal for letting individuals rest while they dry –preventing any unnecessary muscle exertion.

Ease of Wear:

The cape slips on and off easily and allows for easy transfer out of the tub and back to a wheelchair, seated position, or other assisted devices. The cape has a large opening at the top to make sure that you can slip it over the head without struggle. A snap is placed at the neck to do up after it is thrown over for modesty and warmth. A hood is available to help in drying hair right away.

Warmth:

The elderly often experience poor circulation.  This causes heightened sensitivity to the cold.  For this reason, we wanted our shower capes to provide more warmth than a simple towel.  The coverage it provides is more than a traditional towel.  The high neck line of the cape keeps more of the body covered while the moisture absorbing material is gentle on aging skin and will help to dry the wearer.  The cape even has a hood for those cold winter nights and mornings.

Coverage:

Place the terry shower cape on the wearer after bathing is complete and it starts to dry immediately. The shower cape can be thrown over the wearer quickly. They can be covered quickly, that lets them spend less time naked, exposed and embarrassed.

We know this product is a winner and we are sure you will love it too.  Try it out for those in your care, your loved ones, or yourself.  As always we would love to hear your opinion or the shower cape. Please feel free to comment here or head to Silvert’s to leave a review about the terry looper shower cape!