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When preparing and designing correctional facilities, mental hospitals, and secured hospital units, standard washroom equipment will not work. Every fixture will need to be analysed to consider their safety, as things that most of humanity wouldn't care about can become real threats in these sensitive environments.
Ligature Resistant Bathroom Accessories are designed specifically to minimise or completely remove all attachment points that can be used to tie or secure a ligature. These products are not designed to make places feel like a prison or correctional facility, in fact, they look surprisingly normal while doing a serious safety job on the background.
In a standard washroom, without even trying to search, a person can say that they see dozens of potential ligature points. These points include, but are not limited to, exposed towel rack brackets, towel and coat hooks, hand grab rails with empty places behind them, fixed grab rails, and even protruding taps. These everyday objects become true hazards in behavioural health environments or anywhere people may be at risk of self-harming.
The challenge when creating bathrooms is to balance safety with making the user feel like their dignity isn't stripped away. It wouldn't be fair to use restrooms that feel like a jail cell, yet safety cannot be overlooked. That's the balance the ligature Resistant Products are designed to provide.
Ligature-resistant toilets are built quite differently to some of the toilets you may have come across. The cisterns are designed to be either concealed in the walls, or they are designed without any external pipes that could be anchored as a point. Close-coupled designs eliminate the gap between the pans and the cisterns. A number of models have enclosed flush mechanisms instead of levers and handles which are not as easy to flush.
The toilet seat fixings matter too. Regular Toilet seats are attached with bolts that stick out which is a clear issue. Ligature-resistant toilets use a design of either concealed fixings or they use a design where the bolts break away at lower weights to remove the issue entirely.
Primarily you have floor-mounted pans, with anti-vandal fixtures, smooth designs that don't have any ledge or corner. The materials are ones that can take a fair amount of abuse without cracking and can break into small pieces which can be dangerous.
Pedestal sinks have all that plumbing exposed underneath. Not suitable. Ligature resistant basins are wall-hung with all pipework concealed, or they use custom design shrouds that won't create ligature points while hiding all the plumbing.
Taps are another consideration. Traditional pillar tap with separate hot and cold? Too many protruding parts. Ligature resistant taps are typically flush mounted or have very short, smooth spouts with no grip or anchoring points. Some of the models are push button or sensor-operated to remove handles altogether.
The sink and taps designs also need to pay attention to the overflow outlets and plug holes. Anything that is recessed as opposed to protruding, and wedged.
Shower heads in these environments can't be the adjustable types on a rail that you would have at home. Ligature resistant showers typically use fixed flush mounted heads or ceiling mounted showers.
Controls are kept minimal. Often there's just a simple on and off mechanism, rather than separate temperature and flow controls. These add a lot of potential attachment points, and are just not necessary.
Shower trays should technically be sharp-cornered slippery safety deathtraps, right? Wrong! Facilities could use waterproof rooms that have built-in drains so curtain rails/shower doors can be avoided, however, if doors are used, they are designed to prevent people from being trapped.
You'd think Grab Rails would be simple? Wrong! The standard rails with gaps between the rail and the wall are textbook ligature traps waiting to be activated. Either ligature-resistant grab rails are mounted flush to the wall with integrated fixing plates, or they are using breakaway mechanisms that can detach from the wall if enough force is applied.
This also applies to other restroom accessories. Every item from soap dispensers, to paper towel holders, mirrors, and even the walls they attach to, need to have recessed wall designs with sloped tops and no protrusions. Coat hooks are often a ligature trap concern. If the design needs to have coat hooks at all, they have to be the kind that is known to collapse under weight and swing inward.
Overall, people think toilet roll holders are a trivial matter, however, those spring-loaded bars are a ligature risk. The safer versions have roll holders that are entirely enclosed with the roll sitting in a wall recessed opening.
When working in NHS settings, you must meet HTM 64 guidance, which includes requirements for health care washrooms in mental health facilities. It's pretty technical stuff, covering everything from heights and clearances to acceptable materials and fittings.
Getting these washroom refurbishment installations right matters, not just for compliance, but to save lives whilst letting people use washroom facilities.