Changing Places Bathroom Solutions by HLS Healthcare

I work with the disabled and the Changing Places at the MCG has made a huge difference taking my client to the football and the cricket to attend to his personal needs. Also shoppingand dining at Eastland with him is fantastic now as I am able to attend to his needs as required. We would love a Changing Places at Knox City as we go there regularly as well.

Having a day out can be a challenge. Michael is an avid explorer and he loves being out and about traveling on buses, trains and in the car. Sometimes the destination is determined by the facilities we can access for toileting. But once he is out and about there are not many options around toileting. Michael has complex care needs and needs full support for all activities.

My youngest daughter has cerebral palsy. She uses a wheelchair and needs to be hoisted from her chair to the toilet, bed etc.

We went to the Melbourne Zoo having heard that a changing places toilet had just been opened. Well, we felt like a normal family for a change. We didn’t have the worry of our daughter not drinking too much before we went out, we didn’t have to leave our family gathering early, we didn’t have to strain our backs lifting her onto a toilet. What we did do was have a fantastic time knowing we could access a clean, fully equipped toileting facility with ease when we needed to.

We have also used the changing places toilet at the MCG, again this was great as we were celebrating my husbands 50th Birthday there and it would have been very disappointing to leave his own party early.

We need more and more of these facilities available in many more public places, in particular Chadstone Shopping Centre which is currently under going major renovations. How easy would it be to put in one or two of these facilities in the Southern Hemisphere’s largest shopping centre.

Everyone deserves the right to leave their home to access the community and know that a toilet is available for them to use as others do.

Melbourne has often been crowned as the most livable city in the world – that is if you don’t have a disability. We have Australian Building Standards for accessible toilets which unfortunately are discriminating in that they do not met the needs of all people with a disability.

This is extremely limiting where leaving early has become all too familiar. Missing a concert I paid for, leaving meetings half way through, missing the end of the movie, leaving the shops without acquiring what you came for is very emotionally draining.

There are no alternatives as there is a no lifting policy for support staff so if you cannot stand up, like me, public accessible toilets are not an option, sitting in soiled pads it is not only humiliating but has impacted on my heath resulting in infections and bleeding.

I really only have one alternative and that means not to go out at all and stay at home. The idea of being stuck inside four walls is soul destroying for me as I am an extrovert by nature with a love of people. I feel like a bird with my wings clipped.

Having Changing Places toilets would change everything and provide me with opportunities for employment, shopping, movies, concerts, visiting family and friends rather than online but best of all it would provide me a life, a life outside of four walls, alot of quality. I have a dream!