The present invention relates to a supporting device, in particular for use in a toilet for the dis abed and the like, comprising an essentially elongated supporting element with an essentially flat, elongated supporting surface, which flat, elongated supporting surface is substantially horizontal when in the working position, and a fixing element interacting with one end of the supporting element.
Such a supporting device is known. In this case the supporting device is in the form of a straight tube, one end of which is mounted on a plate-shaped fixing element. Two of these supporting devices are fixed in the usual manner at a desired height to a wall behind a lavatory bowl, on either side of the lavatory bowl. The desired height can be a standard height of 24 cm of the supporting surface above a seat height of 48 cm of the lavatory bowl, for example in accordance with the Dutch guideline "Standards for access offered". This standard height corresponds to the average distance between the elbow and the seat in the seated position. The flat supporting surface at the top side of each of the tubes thus offers a user of the toilet some support in the seated position and, through gripping the tubes, the body can be supported to some extent when the user is in the process of sitting down on the lavatory bowl and getting up from it. For reinforcement of the tube, each of the two supporting devices can comprise a second tube situated vertically below the first tube, the two tubes each determining one of the legs of a U-shaped element.
US-A-4 908 906 also discloses such a supporting device having a further part, staggered in at least the upward vertical direction relative to the flat elongated supporting surface and interacting with the fixing element and/or the wall for supporting the elongated supporting element against the wall, according to the preamble of claim 1.
Known supporting devices have, however a number of disadvantages in practice. It has been found that, although adequate body support is provided in the seated position when the user has sat down on the lavatory bowl, when getting up from the bowl there is not sufficient support to reach a completely upright position of the body. Nor is there enough support at the start of sitting down on the lavatory bowl from an upright position of the body. It is in fact the end phase of getting up and the beginning phase of sitting down that are characterised by an unstable position of the body. This known supporting device does not provide adequate supporting facilities for use of the toilet standing up either.
The object of the present invention is to eliminate these disadvantages, and for this purpose according to the invention a supporting device of the type mentioned in the preamble is provided, characterised in that the further supporting surface of the further supporting part connects to the flat elongated arm supporting surface slanting down and forming an angle (α) lying between 120° and 170° with the flat elongated arm supporting surface at their junction device.
The invention will be explained in greater detail on the basis of a number of embodiments with reference to the drawing, in which:
Figure 1 shows a first embodiment of a supporting device 1 according to the invention, in which the supporting device comprises a supporting element in the form of a straight tube 2 with a flat, elongated horizontal supporting surface 3, and a fixing element 4 which interacts, preferably by means of a hinge joint, with one end of the tube 2. The tube 2 together with a further reinforcement tube 5 forms part of a flat and essentially U-shaped element. The supporting device 1 can be made of any suitable material which is strong enough, for example steel or aluminum. The tube diameter can be, for example, approximately 3 cm, and the total length of the supporting device 1 can be between 60 and 90 cm.
At the end facing away from the fixing element 4, the tube 2 has a further tubular supporting part 6 with a further horizontal supporting surface 7 which relative to the elongated horizontal supporting surface 3 in the working position is fitted staggered in the vertical direction over a distance A. The supporting surface 7 at a part 8 passes slanting down into the flat, elongated supporting surface 3, enclosing an angle α.
The distance from the supporting surface 7 to the supporting surface 3 is preferably around 5 cm.
In this embodiment shown in Figure 1, the further supporting part 6 is formed by a deformation in the outward direction, corresponding to the arrow (a), of a U-shaped element on the end facing away from the fixing element 4 and in the plane of the U-shaped element.
Two of these supporting devices 1 can be fixed on either side of a lavatory bowl to the wall behind it with a distance of, for example, 65 cm between them, in which case the supporting surface 3 can be at a standard height (h) of 24 cm above a seat height of 48 cm of the lavatory bowl, in order to provide a suitable support during sitting.
Since the further supporting surface 7 of the supporting part 6 lies higher up than the standard height (h) of the supporting surface 3, gripping the supporting part 6 with the hand provides a body support in the course of sitting down and getting up, and in particular in the beginning phase and the end phase of sitting down on the lavatory bowl from an upright position of the body, and getting up from said bowl.
In the process of sitting down the hand can be moved gradually from the supporting part 6 to the tube 2 via the slanting part 8. For a gradual transition the angle α lies on average preferably between 120° and 170°. When getting up the hand can be moved in a similar way gradually from the tube 2 to the supporting part 6. Reaching over is therefore not necessary in order to reach the tube 2 from the supporting part 6, and vice versa, so that a suitable body support can be provided constantly. Moreover, the slanting transition here prevents a dorsiflexion of the wrist, so that this joint is not placed under too much strain, something which is very important in the case of rheumatic patients.
In order to permit lateral transfer from a wheelchair, the U-shaped element can be flapped up to a position which is shown by dashed lines in Figure 1. The U-shaped element can preferably be locked in any of the two positions shown.
Figure 2 shows a second embodiment of the supporting device according to the invention, in which parts corresponding to parts shown in Figure 1 are indicated by the same reference numbers. A top view of this second embodiment is shown in Figure 4. Formed on the supporting element 2, at the end facing away from the fixing element 4, is a further tubular supporting element 9 with a supporting surface 10 which relative to the supporting surface 3 in the working position is fitted both horizontally and vertically staggered relative to the tube 2. The staggered fitting of the further supporting part 9 is shown in greater detail in Figure 3. The tubular supporting part 9 and the tube 2 thus each form a leg of a U-shaped element with staggered legs. The distance B between the legs, measured parallel to the arrow (b) is preferably at least 4 cm. The distance between the legs from central axis to central axis is preferably between 10 and 30 cm. In the embodiment shown the tube 2 is deformed, and the tube 9 is straight. It is, however, clear that a straight tube 2 and a deformed tube 9 are also possible, or there can be two staggered straight tubes. Figure 5 shows an example in perspective view of the latter embodiment.
As shown schematically in Figure 3, support for the body is provided by the supporting part 9, on the one hand through gripping the tube 2 and, on the other, through resting the upper part of the lower arm against the supporting part 9, which permits a stable body position during getting up from and sitting down on the toilet. Just as in the case of the embodiment shown in Figure 1, when the user is sitting down or getting up the hand can be moved towards or away from the slanting part 8 situated higher up than the tube 2.
When the toilet is being used standing up, the supporting parts 6 and 9 provide additional support, in particular at their curved ends which are in fact higher up than the tube 2, which is at the standard height (h). These higher up curved ends also provide a gripping face for moving over forwards from a wheelchair.
It will be clear that the supporting device according to the invention is not limited to use in a toilet for disabled people, but is suitable for any application where it is desirable to provide body support in a similar manner. The number of further supporting parts and their exact form will depend partly on the degree of invalidity of the users. The latter can be, for example, the elderly, paraplegics or rheumatic patients.
It will therefore be clear to an expert that many modifications to the embodiments described above are possible without going beyond the scope of the invention as claimed in the appending claims.