How heavenly it is to have a relaxing hot bath, especially now that winter’s coming along. I have mine candlelit, with herbal salts, scented soaps and the radio on, just before bedtime. Bliss. So why on earth has my friend Clayden’s housing association been replacing all baths with walk-in showers whenever it updates a bathroom? Is this our future: mandatory showers and no baths for the elderly?
All right, the tenants are over 65, but all still ambulant and able to clamber in and out of baths, like me. Yes, it can be tricky. My arms are fairly weedy, I’ve occasionally slipped, fallen back in, caused a tidal wave, flooded the bathroom and cracked my head on the bath’s edge but, hey, life is stuffed with near-death experiences. I’ve also come a cropper by catching a toe in my pyjama bottoms, tripping over the dog, hosepipe, or a step I thought was there but wasn’t, and if Clayden and I wish to knock ourselves out having a bath, that should be our choice.
There are safer options if we fancy them. My mother had problems in her 90s. I used to haul her out of baths – a hazardous manoeuvre that nearly finished us both off, so we tried a plank-and-seat arrangement. But it wasn’t as good as wallowing in a proper bath. Luckily, we found an electric sling contraption that lowered her aching body into the foaming, perfumed, de-stressing, immune-system-boosting, cleansing and potentially eczema-alleviating bath, and raised her out of it. Magic! And so much better than perching on a plastic stool under a pesky spray.
But who cares about the elderly and their comfort? Our government seems unprepared for the “looming crisis” in social care and “significant social and economic distress … scandals and misery” that are probably heading our way. So, stop those cruises, you selfish baby-boomers, start saving, consider equity release and don’t expect a limit on your financial liability. You’ll be lucky if you’re left with a home at all, never mind a bath. Perhaps that’s a good job, because you might choose to drown yourself in it.
