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200 Changing Places toilets
Friday 13 August 2010
Is there a fully accessible toilet near you?
There are now over 200 Changing Places toilets in the UK.
Standard disabled toilets do not meet the needs of thousands of people, including 40,000 people with profound and multiple learning disabilities. Changing Places toilets have enough space and the right equipment, including a height adjustable changing bench and a hoist.
Without Changing Places toilets, families have to change the person they care for on a cramped and dirty toilet floor. The alternative is to limit outings to a few hours, or not go out at all. The Changing Places campaign, sponsored by Clos-o-mat, campaigns to change lives through Changing Places toilets.
The 200th Changing Places toilet opened in Scotland in July, and more than 20 more are already planned for the future.
The new facilities opened this year include a Changing Places toilet at George Best Belfast City Airport, the first at an airport in the UK. A Changing Places toilet was also available at August's V Festival.
Pictured: Paralympic gold medallist Baroness Tanni Grey-Thompson opening Middlesborough's first Changing Places toilet.
Find out more on the Changing Places website
Comments
I perfectly understand how the usual "disabled" toilets are not suitable. I have a severe back problem (and a bowel problem), so sometimes I really need to use a disabled toilet. I am tall and cannot always get up from the toilet if it is low. Besides, people who have had a hip replacement are not to use a low toilet until well after six weeks, even now, nearly two years later, it's a bit awkward for me.
I was in a hospital last week and reported that there was nothing by which to pull myself up, apart from behind me, which would have badly hurt my sore shoulder.
People need to ask semi-abled as well as disabled don't you think? As one ages, limbs and bones can become painful.
Local people told the Local Involvement Network (LINk) in Bournemouth that there are not enough Changing Places toilets in the town.
It is acknowledged that the lack of toilets can prevent people
from leaving their home for long periods of time.
A task group was made up of a representative
from the LINk, Bournemouth People First (a
local charity for people with learning difficulties)
and the local Council
i recently attended a parish council meeting at the village hall in east preston, west sussex, where they have a disabled toilet, to which i got stuck in, no room to move once inside, and okay if you have a small sized wheelchair, the light worked on a sensor, okay if your tall but i am in a wheelchair 24/7, someone that was in the meeting came to help me, i just about managed to use the toilet but with great difficulty, as there was a fixed frame over the toilet hence no room to manoeuvre, then i couldn't open the door to get out, i had to go backwards to try and push the door open but failed, yet again someone in the meeting came to my rescue if no-one was in that meeting i don't know what i would have done.