Do you count yourself among the 1/4 million who struggle to use a standard accessible toilet? Do you need more thana pull-down grab rail around the toilet and a red emergency pull cord?
Around 250,000 disabled people and their families have to plan any form of outing around whether or not they can use a toilet.
Having that anxiety of leaving the safety of your home – not drinking any fluids or having to change your child or teenager on a dirty toilet floor or just the fear of having that embarrassing moment!
Many ‘accessible toilets’ in the UK are unequipped. They are too small to fit a wheelchair in independently, let alone add a carer/caregiver.
Forget trying to adjust clothes.
If you are capable of transferring, try that when the loo is too low!
Grab rails—they are either badly fitted or not enough, then add baby-changing tables that have a habit of just getting in the way!
What’s needed? More Changing Places facilities
Changing Places Toilets provide:
- The right equipment
- Adult size height adjustable changing bench
- A tracking hoist system, or mobile hoist if this is not possible
Enough space/Safe space - Adequate space – changing area for a disabled person and up to two carers
- A centrally placed toilet with enough room either side for safe transfer
- A screen or curtain to allow privacy
A safe and clean environment - Wide tear off paper roll to cover the bench
- A large waste bin for disposable pads
- A non-slip floor
- Some even provide a shower
If you’re looking for a Changing Places toilet, this is the symbol you need to look out for:
You can also find any registered Changing Places toilet on the Changing Places UK website
In Milton Keynes the registered Changing Places toilets are at:
- CMK Shopping Centre • Tesco, Kingston • MK Gallery • IKEA • MK Stadium • The Odeon
- JD Weatherspoons, Bletchley – Captain Ridley’s shooting party
- The government announced a £30m investment to provide Changing Places Toilets for local authorities to opt in and apply to install more Changing Places toilets across the UK, support them, and raise awareness of the need for them. This went live on the 29th of July.
Everyone deserves to live a life they choose, not one that is chosen for them just because of a toilet! If we can put people into space and they can use the toilet surely we can make it so disabled people and their families can enjoy going out without worry.
MK CIL fully support Kerry’s view and will support any organisation that decides to install a changing place toilet into their premises