Back when I was involved in my training as a Resident Care aid (or RCA for short), I spent a fair amount of my time in practicum at different care facilities, and while in these places I was witness to a number of different enabling devices and apparati which really opened my eyes to just how much more assistance many elderly or disabled  individuals need when it comes to doing many of the things that we often take for granted everyday. For instance, where you or I might just decide to take a quick shower or fill up the bath tub and have a relaxing and soothing bath, many individuals would find attempting either of those activities to be too much of a challenge for them to safely undertake.  The danger of slipping and falling in the shower or even just being unable to sit oneself upright properly in the bath and being in danger of sliding too low into the bathwater are things that many would not want to risk.  I guess that before starting my training I just had not really considered these as hurdles. My time spent completing my training definitely opened my eyes to this however.

  What really impressed me in facilities was the presence of an apparatus or appliance that made these activities, once taken for granted but now undoable without much bother, safe to enjoy again.  The item in question is the standard walk in bath tub.  You might also have heard reference to this as a handicap bathtub, a senior bathtub or even a disabled bathtub, however all of these terms are refering to the same basic principle: a walk in tub inside of which the mobility challenged individual can sit in  comfort while enjoying a bath in a safe and relaxing environmernt.  The idea of a bath tub with a mini door on the side that opens to let the individual safely step in and then sit down on the provided motorized tub bench is one that at once seems strikingly obvious in its necessity, yet not obvious in the implimentation until you actually see it there in front of you; before my training I never considered such a concept as this to be a solution because I was not sufficiently aware of the problems or challenges that awaited many in my local community whenever they felt the desire to have a simple bath.  What I saw in facility was basicaly something that you could step safely into, sit down on the provided bath tub bench and safely lower one self into the water and then raise one self out of once done.  The fact that many of these seemed to come with some kind of hand held shower attachment for final rinsing impressed me even more.  Of course the majority of individuals that would have taken advantage of such a device as the walk in tub in a facility were still in need of some assistance while using it, however the implications for the independence that something like this could bring to mobility challenged individuals in their own home who still had enough mobility touse such an item without much if any assistance was a real stunner for me.  I had just never envisioned this kind of thing being available for someone to use in their own home.  This was along the lines of me not being much aware of the home lift chair recliner before working in the Community health setting as acare aid.

  Now that I have spent a sizable number of years working in the community setting, I have had the opportunity to see such a bath tub in operation in the home.  The different models that I have seen were all manufactured by the same company, Premier Bathrooms, a company that seems to specialise in producing and distributing  easy access bathroom appliances and accessories.  It is actually surprising just how many different models of walk in bathtub are offered by Premiere bathrooms, all with their own particular preffered bathroom orientation intended to replace the existing bathtub in the home.  Regardless of the specific Premier bath tub I may have been dealing with at different times, all of the Premier baths seemed to offer the individual a bathing experience that allows one to once again safely luxuriate in a bath full of water.  Each Premier tub comes with some form of sited swing-open entry door, a motorized bench for lowering into and raising out of the water, a standard set of faucetts which are customizable to other modern faucet options such as levers, and in some cases, an easily manipulated shower head which the bather can quickly and easily use to rinse themself off with afterwards.  Now when I see a commercial for Premier bath or any other Premiere bathroom appliance (or any similar company) come on the TV, I can't help but think to myself that maybe I have a better appreciation than many others that might be watching for what kind of renewed freedom and access they are offering to so many in my own community.