Sometimes you may come across a client who decides that they no longer want to bath, they may refuse to change their clothes, and cease to maintain personal hygiene. This happens far more often than you may realise, but it can become problematic as well as being frustrating for the carer.

Many older clients may feel that as they have aged they have also lost a certain amount of control over their lives. One thing that they do still control is how they wash and how they dress. It seems that the more you insist on them having a shower or bath, the more they resist.

Another reason why older clients may resist washing is that they have lost their sense of smell and can no longer recognise the need to bath or change clothing.

Your client may simply have forgotten when last they bathed or showered because the days seem to all run into each other.

Yet another reason for the lack of personal hygiene can be a fear of slipping in the bath or the shower. Your client may have had a fall before and become terrified about slipping in the bath and drowning, or even lying there alone waiting for help to come.

Modesty can also be an issue as some older clients may refuse to have a family member helping them or seeing them undressed.

How do we deal with this?

The first thing to do is to try to find out why your client refuses to bath or shower, why they refuse to change their clothing and why they resist any help.

Once you have ascertained the reason, you can start to work on a solution.

If your client is afraid of slipping in the bath or shower then you may want to research bath chairs which will safely take your client up and down in the bath, with no risk of them slipping.

There are shower chairs which will allow your client to sit in the shower rather than stand and perhaps slip. These are inexpensive and worth every penny if it means tour client is happy to shower.

Often a client who suffers from dementia may change and start to refuse to bath. It may be up to you to change the routine and start off with a body wash instead of insisting on a bath.

Gradually start by washing only a part of their body, and when they are happy with hat then you could move on to washing other parts.

If this is how you need to change the bathing or showering routine then make sure that you are using a ‘laid back’ approach. Keep talking about happy things and keep the mood light.

Distraction often helps and you may be able to wash your client while they are thinking of other things.

Final thoughts

While you should do your best to keep your client clean, also make sure that your own expectations are realistic. You may need to adjust your own definition of cleanliness to achieve anything.

Normally for seniors to avoid any skin infections you can reduce bathing or showering to once or twice a week. While this may not be your ideal routine, to avoid confrontation, you may want to leave things this way.

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