16 – Home Environment Adaptation

Aside from obtaining aids, adapting your home can involve structural reconfigurations such as removal of thresholds, making the bathroom and kitchen handicap friendly, or elevating the balcony. Even small changes can make life much easier in your own home, help avoid accidents, or adapt the home to your abilities.

A tour of your home

The bathroom in particular requires major adaption. If you look at your bathroom, for instance:

•   Are grab handles installed in the bathtub and shower?
•   Does the toilet have a comfortable seat height?
•   Can you easily get into the bathtub?
•   Do you have to move over thresholds to get to the bathroom or other rooms?
•   Should the bathtub be replaced by a shower?  Is the door way to the toilet and the bathroom wide enough?

You should look at every room in your home with as much scrutiny as you look at the bathroom in order to decide whether your home is functionally suitable for your needs.
In home environment adaptation, there is no single solution that fits all and it should be evaluated in advance in your home, together with you, which individual measures are necessary and make sense for you.