Common Barriers to Bathing

If bathing is so wonderful and healthy, why does it feel like you have to beg, plead, and trick some of your clients into doing it?  For many clients, bathing may be scary or confusing.  For others it may be exhausting or embarrassing. 

Here are a few common reasons your clients may refuse to bathe:

• Depression can cause a loss of interest in personal hygiene.
• Fatigue from a physical illness can cause a lack of the energy it takes to keep up with personal hygiene.
• Hydrophobia (or fear of water) is common with people who have dementia or Alzheimer’s disease.  They may fear water that is too deep, too hot, or too cold.  Or, they may feel fearful of water spraying down on them from an overhead shower.
• Embarrassment from lack of privacy (especially in facilities) or from having to undress with unfamiliar caregivers.
• Physical discomfort from a room that is too cold.
• Fear of falling, particularly if the person has fallen in the past.
• Confusion can make the steps involved in taking a bath too overwhelming.
• Disoriented clients may not bathe because they simply can’t find the bathroom. 
• Forgetfulness can make the purpose and need for a bath seem unimportant.  The person may have bathed on a schedule in the past, but now, days and weeks may go by before he or she remembers to bathe.
• Humiliation from having to rely on others for help and/or from having to bathe on someone else’s timetable (or according to the nursing schedule).
• Poor lighting, particularly in home bathrooms, can make bathing confusing, frustrating, and dangerous.