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ULTIMATE GUIDE TO BEST GRAB BARS FOR ELDERLY
As people get into age, they need some support to handle their life. There are many ways to ensure that these people have the support they need. They can dignifiedly travel around independently; it is wise to consider installing the best grab bars for elderly people in distressed areas.
Especially if you care for an elderly parent in your home, the bathtub, toilet, shower areas, and are primarily a few problem areas to remember.
The reasons and advantages of installing grab bars are relatively straightforward and obvious: protection, security, safety. Here are the best grab bars for elderly loved ones that will prove beneficial for you and your family members.
In general, the longer the grab bar, the better it is because more gripping space to use. When grab bar placing in a wet environment, pick one with a no-slip surface. Keep reading the article to know more about the best grab bars for elderly men and women.
What are Grab bars?
Grab Bars, also known as safety rails; handrails are sturdy rails that help weak or older adults safely access and navigate rooms. Moreover, facilities from thin, light-duty handles to heavy-duty protruding support arm flexible grab bar systems.
They come in a variety of sizes and capacities. We can find them around toilets, bathrooms, sinks, changing tables, and other critical facilities. Because these places can pose a challenge to people with reduced mobility, balance, or strength, however, choose the best grab bars for your elderly parents.
Benefits of Grab Bars
Grab bars offer a range of tremendous advantages, which include:
- Help older people to pull or force themselves into a new position.
- Moreover, such as from sitting to standing, or from one surface to another to help scoot.
- Help someone balance themselves on a toilet or a shower seat when seated.
- Enable someone to control himself when taking a step up or down.
- Improve the safety of elderly tub.
What do you have to check before you buy a grab bar?
When buying a grab bar, make sure to look for:
- The wall that supports grab bars.
- Moreover, make sure towel rail, a grab rail is strong enough to carry the right amount of weight through it!
- If it is a brick wall, you would have a lot of control over where the rail should be mounted.
What are the different types of grab bars?
To help you identify the style that would function best for you. We have given a brief overview of the various types of best grab bars for elderly people.
1- Straight Grab Bar
Straight grab bars, the most basic grab bar, range from small handgrips to wall-lining safety rails. Moreover, we usually placed around strategic locations in a fixed position. A straight grab bar can be used anywhere you feel you need an extra handhold in your home.
This support bar is flexible and can, mounted vertically, horizontally, or at an angle. In a vast array of lengths, colors, finishes, materials, and designs, straight grab bars are available.
2- Wave-Style Grab Bar
There is a simple but elegant design in the wave-style grab bar that is both functional and aesthetically pleasing. This grab can use in the bathroom, dining room, corridor, or stairway.
Moreover, it’s another version of the straight grab bar with a more playful appearance to add an artistic aspect. Like the straight grab bars, this type of grab bar can mount almost anywhere in the home on a robust surface where you feel you can gain from an extra handhold.
3- Grab Bar Shower Ring
The days when grab bars are reduced to institutional-looking eyesores fixed to the bathroom wall are gone! If you blend effortlessly into the surrounding area, modern grab bars are cleverly built to make them invisible to unsuspecting eyes.
Accent grab barring can design to frame the shower valve elegantly, providing a stable handhold. Moreover, to increase the protection and independence of those who bathe? Overall, one of the best grab bars holders for the elderly.
4- Grab Bar with Soap Dish
Grab Bars with a soap dish inserted into the design role to keep the soap and provide a secure handhold. These dual-use grab bars skillfully combine style and protection in one. At a higher level, a grab bar soap dish can place and used for support
When your elderly walk in and out of your bath or shower. However, put on the wall at a lower level and use as support to lift yourself from a bath seat to stand up.
5- Grab Bar with Shelf
To blend invisibly into space, grab bar shelves have been built. Most individuals who experience them would be none the wiser that there is even a grab bar. Some grab bar shelf models can design to nestle in the shower corner. Moreover, they are useful for holding bottles of soap and shampoo. However, some others are larger and can be used for storing towels and other large objects.
6- Grab Bar with Towel Rack
For users of all ages, a grab bar towel rack offers a comfortable handhold! Who at one time or another hasn’t found themselves reaching out to grab onto a towel bar for support? To avoid the possibility of you (or one of your guests) snatching the towel rack off the wall.
However, it is great to design practice to ensure that all towel racks can rate dual as grab bars. With a single bar, the Grab Bar Towel Rack models would be much safer and more durable. Some select versions of shower slide bars can specifically be designed to be dual as a grab bar.
7- Grab Bar with Handheld Showerhead
Realistically, since it looks like a handle attached to the wall, many people, both young and old, naturally reach out and use a shower slide bar for help. However, most slide bars for retaining the showerhead will not be meant to use for support.
Some select versions of shower slide bars have also been specifically designed to be dual as a grab bar. Moreover, offering a robust handhold that bathers can use when getting in and out of the bath or shower or bending down to wash legs and feet.
8- Flip Up & Flip Down Grab Bars
Flip-up style grab bars have a hinge so that they can be flipped up out of the way when not in use. Moreover, it can be flipped down when needed. On either side of the bathroom, one or two flip-up type grab bars are often built to help when sitting down and standing up from the toilet.
They can also be mounted and used to help you get in and out of a tub or shower stall. Your grandparents can use it to get in and out of bed or get up from a couch or chair. Some models are designed to be directly attached to the wall, and others instead have a base that connects to the floor.
9- Corner Grab Bars for Two Walls
This bar is also an L-shaped, 90-degree angle grab handle, like the previous one. Attachment points are the difference. This one has attachment points that allow it to be fixed horizontally in the corner between two walls versus fixed to just one wall.
In the corner of a bathtub or shower stall, this sort of grab bar is usually mounted. This grab bar can also be seen in the corner behind a toilet. Moreover, showing more handhold choices for a wheelchair user to use when getting on and off the toilet.
10- Floor to Ceiling Pole
Floor to Ceiling Poles makes it easier to stand up from a sofa, bed, or toilet and walk in and out of a bath. In this way, it can provide a helpful handhold to stand up for the elderly.
Moreover, Screws, nails, fasteners, or formal installation are not needed. The majority of models are fitted with pads on either end, which prevents the floor or ceiling from marring pole.
11- Angled Grab Bars
Angled grab bars have a horizontal grab bar, and they provide users with several different handholds. Moreover, it has a second bar that stretches upward at an angle of 135. This grab bar is often placed next to a bath seat or next to a toilet on the wall.
This bar provides a horizontal bar for a user to lift from or the vertical part of pulling on to help the toilet or bath seat rise. The models with a textured finish or a grip pad added to the underside of the bar help improve a user’s grip when placed in a wet environment.
12- Wall to Floor Grab Bars
As the name suggests, these grab bars can attach to the wall and the floor. The grab bar is an L-shaped bar that stretches out from the wall to the floor below and bends 90 degrees. This form of safety rail is most commonly mounted on one or both sides of a toilet and can be used to sit on and stand up from the toilet for support.
Since users do not often push straight up on the bars and appear to push outward and upward. Therefore, models with a second tiny support leg connected to the floor may help provide additional stability.
13- Swing Out Grab Bars
Several handholds at various heights are given by Swing-out style grab bars, enabling them to be used for various functions. They both have stationary grab bars and a swivel bar that swings sideways and can be locked at different angles.
This form of safety rail is also mounted on the wall opposite the toilet. To help lower the bathroom and lift itself back up again, your elderly loved ones can use it, such as near a bed, couch, or chair, in other areas of the house. Most of the wall-mounted versions can be folded flat against the wall when not in use.
14- Suction-Mounted Grab Bars
Hand bars that use suction cups to attach to walls and other surfaces are prevalent in residential bathrooms, where individuals need a little help climbing into a tub or keeping their balance in the shower.
They are easy to mount and can be adjusted quickly. However, the elderly cannot safely hold as much weight as a wall- or track-mounted support arm. Moreover, we should not use this bar in any weight-bearing capacity.
15- Trapeze Bar
Another choice for adding a handhold in a position where one is otherwise unlikely to be is a trapeze-style support bar. The use of rolling, repositioning oneself, raising hips for a caregiver to help with toileting makes it the best grab bars for elderly people.
Moreover, it helps move from lying to sitting or getting out of bed; it is often built beside or over a bed. When used in tandem with a vertical safety pole to help stand up, some individuals often find it beneficial.
16- Colored Grab Bars
Grab bars are available in several colors, allowing one to be found to fit all sorts of home decors. Some manufacturers also offer custom powder coating services, enabling you to choose almost any color you want. Moreover, it is easier to see and thus understand that people with visual disabilities can choose to pick a grab bar in color.
17- Decorative Grab Bars
Without sacrificing elegance, contemporary grab bars will provide decorative accents in your home, improving protection and independence. From antique to new elegant, they are available in various sizes, finishes, and designs. Modern grab bars have also been described as “bathroom jewelry.”
Conclusion
Grab bars will go a long way towards enhancing the freedom, integrity, and protection of weakened or disabled individuals. They will make critical and repetitive activities simpler and safer for patients and their caregivers. Moreover, from simply assisting an elderly individual in getting around their private bathroom to meeting numerous patients’ needs in a large care facility. Also, they come in several shapes, sizes, and capabilities that can satisfy almost any market.
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