Council scheme to provide stairlifts and walk in showers

Richmond Council has launched a new housing scheme to help elderly residents attain much-needed stairlifts and walk in showers to make living at home more comfortable and daily tasks easier to complete. The plans were outlined in the council’s Housing Strategy 2013-17 and will see more elderly people gain access to suitable and independent housing.

It is hoped that the new scheme will work towards helping people gain access to housing that is suitable for their needs, as the grants are to be given to disabled households or those on low incomes in order to pay for such needed features as specially adapted walk in baths and showers and other mobility devices. The council has stated that currently there are too many elderly residents in the area in unsuitable housing and that this scheme will go a long way to reversing this.

Hope for the vulnerable

The council have also launched a winter warmth home visiting service, which aims to help and advise elderly residents through the cold winter months. This service looks to provide energy efficiency information and other forms of help to some of the most vulnerable residents in the area in a move to help Richmond’s elderly live more independently.

By providing these grants to the area’s elderly and disabled on low incomes, it is hoped that it will enable them to continue living by themselves and carry out daily tasks without the aid of a carer or having to enter residential care. The installation of Handicare stairlift solutions can revolutionise daily living and make homes more suitable to the abilities of the resident, achieving the council’s goal of helping ‘elderly and disabled residents to continue to live independently within our community’.

This goal is a part of the council’s four-year strategy to create a borough in which all vulnerable residents have access to appropriate housing and facilities for their needs.

Image Credit: Abdulsalam Haykal (flickr.com)