Help needed

teajug

A good friend of mine is renting a council home and needs some his bathroom changed for his disability. As he does not own his home and the landlord is the council would the council be responsible for making his bathroom safe for him to use as he has problems getting out of the bath with a disability. Also how should he go about asking them to do this for him. His kitchen also needs changes to be done for him it the kitchen unit needs to be brought down to a level that he can use them without injuring himself.

:T

meer53

He needs to contact Social Services, they will do an assessment to see if he needs the adjustments and whether they will pay for them.

anguk

We don't own our home, it's private rented and we've had a stair lift installed a few years ago and yesterday my husband had another assessment and we're going to get a walk-in shower installed.

You can't just ask the council to do the work, even though it's a council house. What you have to do is ring the council and ask to be assessed by their social care team (with my council you can do this online). An occupational therapist will visit your friend in his home and assess his needs, things like changing bathing facilities or his kitchen are quite expensive so your friend will need to apply for a Disabled Facilites Grant, the occupational therapist will sort all this out for them. It cost us nothing for the stair lift and we'll also get the shower installed for nothing because we're on benefits. All the assessments and estimates, fitting and installing are done for you but it can take a number of months to get all the paperwork done.

There's more information about Disabled Facilities Grants here:
http://www.direct.gov.uk/en/disabledpeople/homeandhousingoptions/yourhome/dg_4000642
But the first thing to do is ring the council and ask for an assessment by an Occupational Therapist.

Savvy_Sue

And he needs to speak to his Housing Officer, it's possible that he could apply to move to disability friendly housing.

teajug

anguk wrote: »

We don't own our home, it's private rented and we've had a stair lift installed a few years ago and yesterday my husband had another assessment and we're going to get a walk-in shower installed.

You can't just ask the council to do the work, even though it's a council house. What you have to do is ring the council and ask to be assessed by their social care team (with my council you can do this online). An occupational therapist will visit your friend in his home and assess his needs, things like changing bathing facilities or his kitchen are quite expensive so your friend will need to apply for a Disabled Facilites Grant, the occupational therapist will sort all this out for them. It cost us nothing for the stair lift and we'll also get the shower installed for nothing because we're on benefits. All the assessments and estimates, fitting and installing are done for you but it can take a number of months to get all the paperwork done.

There's more information about Disabled Facilities Grants here:
http://www.direct.gov.uk/en/disabledpeople/homeandhousingoptions/yourhome/dg_4000642
But the first thing to do is ring the council and ask for an assessment by an Occupational Therapist.

Many thanks for help, I understand that he had Occupational therapist around about 3 years ago. But they were very unhelpful, they gave him a bath lift but he could not use it as he got arthritis in his fingers and could not lift it away from the bath due to suckers at the bottom of it. He had to send it back and told the Occupational therapists that it was not suitable for him, they told him that as he was a pensioner it was not essential that he took a bath and a wash-down would do for him.

His bath was very old and rusty at the plug end, as it was the same bath that was put in when the building was built, with the bath lift he feet was at the end of the bath where the rust was and ended up with cuts on his heels because of the bath being so rusty and old. In the end the bath started to leak on the flat below him. He contacted the council and when they saw the rust in the bath the council maintenance dept change it for him immediately, they were excellent compared to occupational therapists. In the end all he got from the occupational therapist after about a dozen visits from them was a bath rail that was put in the wrong place.

The bath that was put in by the maintenance from the council is in the wrong place and he cannot get out of the bath because the toilet hinders him, and he is in fear of falling and breaking his hip again.

If he can help he does not want dozen of visits by occupational therapist again without results.

The block of flats where he lives has lift and no stairs in his flat all on one level. He is not getting any benefits does that mean he will have to pay for the alterations he may need even though he does not own the property.

Will have a look at the link above for him when I get a bit more time.

:T

Little_Mo_70

teajug wrote: »

Many thanks for help, I understand that he had Occupational therapist around about 3 years ago. But they were very unhelpful, they gave him a bath lift but he could not use it as he got arthritis in his fingers and could not lift it away from the bath due to suckers at the bottom of it. He had to send it back and told the Occupational therapists that it was not suitable for him, they told him that as he was a pensioner it was not essential that he took a bath and a wash-down would do for him.

His bath was very old and rusty at the plug end, as it was the same bath that was put in when the building was built, with the bath lift he feet was at the end of the bath where the rust was and ended up with cuts on his heels because of the bath being so rusty and old. In the end the bath started to leak on the flat below him. He contacted the council and when they saw the rust in the bath the council maintenance dept change it for him immediately, they were excellent compared to occupational therapists. In the end all he got from the occupational therapist after about a dozen visits from them was a bath rail that was put in the wrong place.

The bath that was put in by the maintenance from the council is in the wrong place and he cannot get out of the bath because the toilet hinders him, and he is in fear of falling and breaking his hip again.

If he can help he does not want dozen of visits by occupational therapist again without results.

The block of flats where he lives has lift and no stairs in his flat all on one level. He is not getting any benefits does that mean he will have to pay for the alterations he may need even though he does not own the property.

Will have a look at the link above for him when I get a bit more time.

:T

Hi

Just a thought. Are there no sheltered housing bungalows in his area? It might be an idea for him to speak to his council and see if he can get put on the waiting list for one.
I think they might have better facilities for him including no stairs or lifts. One of these would allow him to live independantly (and safely) but have warden control in case of emergency.

teajug

Little_Mo_70 wrote: »

Hi

Just a thought. Are there no sheltered housing bungalows in his area? It might be an idea for him to speak to his council and see if he can get put on the waiting list for one.
I think they might have better facilities for him including no stairs or lifts. One of these would allow him to live independantly (and safely) but have warden control in case of emergency.

Thanks for help Little Mo, where his flat is at present there is a lift and no stairs in it for him to manager, he needs help in his bathroom ie mainly getting out of bath as his toilet is situation in the wrong place for him to get out safety. Otherwise he is living independently shops are local to him and transport as well as he knows the area and has friend near by.

He is reluctant to get in contact with occupational therapist as they have been very unhelpful in the past considering that they told him that there was no need for him to have a bath. Wonder would any of them like to go without showing or bathing.

As it is council accommodation he feels that he should not have to pay for basic amenities for his day to day living.

I will make the suggestion for them to make enquirers about moving into sheltered accommodation and see if how he will take it.
:T

Savvy_Sue

Another suggestion - I know he may not like it, but worth making - is to see if there are any Day Centres with bathing facilities?

teajug

Savvy_Sue wrote: »

Another suggestion - I know he may not like it, but worth making - is to see if there are any Day Centres with bathing facilities?

He used to go to the swimming pool for a show, but that stopped when he got a black eye in the disabled unit shower room when a paper towel covering fell on him, he also got fungal infection there as well. I think he will stay away from public bathing facilities for a while anyway. He misses it as it was great exercise for his disability.
:T