When her family moved into their new house last year, the bathroom did not have a walk-in shower. Instead the shower was within a large spa bath, making access difficult for Andie.
Being a teenager, it is important for Andie to have as much independence and privacy as possible when showering.
Her mum Rhonda contacted Andie’s therapist at the Cerebral Palsy Alliance in Tuggerah who referred her to TAD’s group in the Central Coast. TAD volunteer Robert Star went to visit the family to assess the problem.
After measuring up the area, Robert set about designing and building a piece of equipment to solve this problem. The idea was to create a bench that would straddle both the inside and outside of the bath. This would allow Andie to sit on the bench and swing her legs up and over the side of the bath. From there, she could use the shower from a sitting position.
Robert built a stainless steel frame to the dimensions of the bath and bathroom. Then he added a waterproof seat made from ply. The surface of the seat is low friction to make transfers from each side of the bath easier.
When Robert visited the family to deliver the bench he trimmed the bench legs to size and added plastic chair tips to them to protect the floor of the bath from scrapes.
This has enabled Andie to use the shower by herself.
Andie’s Occupational Therapist, Jessica from LifePoints, said, “I was impressed, as always, with the quality of the work by Robert and it’s great to be able to provide solutions when commercially available products can’t do the job.”
