Self care

Things to talk through with your family/ carers/ support team:

• Do you have a personal care routine?
• When do you normally do your personal care routine? (e.g. morning/ afternoon/ evening)
• Do you use any equipment in the bathroom? (e.g. bath board/ toilet frame/ toilet seat/ handrails)
• Struggling with a task? Can it be broken down into smaller chunks?
• Do you think you need equipment to help you with self care?

Try breaking down a self care activity to help guide each step. Find an example below for how you might break down washing your hair in the shower.

For further information on support in self care activities please contact the Occupational Therapy department on 01383 565223.

Hair Washing

“We recently had a request into the Occupational Therapy service for an individual that was having trouble remembering the steps for washing their hair. As a result of this the individual required a lot of support from their carer to help them with hair washing. Occupational Therapy worked with the individual to make a hair washing example for each stage. Occupational Therapy worked with the individual to practice the stages of the example and supported them to develop a routine for how to do each step. The example was laminated and placed on the wall of the shower so that the individual could look at it to check the steps of the task while hair washing. The individual required needed a lot less support from their carer with hair washing.”

Learning Disability Occupational Therapist

Clean or Dirty Washing

“One of the adults that we worked with was finding it hard to work our whether their clothes were clean or dirty. The individual did not have a place for their clothes and instead piled them up on the floor. The Occupational Therapist supported the individual to purchase a second basket and created clear signs for each basket – one with the wording ‘clean washing’ and one with ‘dirty washing’ – and attached these to each of the baskets. The Occupational Therapist explained to the individual how to use these and worked with the individual to practice and remove the clothes from the floor. The individual found this really useful and continues to use it to support their washing and prevent piles of washing.”

Learning Disability Occupational Therapist