Keeping your senior safe at home is one of your biggest priorities as her caregiver, but it sometimes feels like a complicated series of tasks. Try to break the project down and focus on one area of her home at a time.
Check the Carpet and Throw Rugs
Flooring is a huge safety concern for aging adults. Your elderly family member’s ability to continue to move safely through her home is crucial. Look for anything that makes her flooring potentially dangerous, such as humps, bumps, or holes. Throw rugs are particularly dangerous, so it’s a good idea to remove them entirely.
Senior Care Mt. Gilead OH – How Safe Are Your Senior’s Living Areas?
Lighting Is Crucial
Besides flooring, lighting is the next most crucial item on the list. If your senior can’t see obstacles or problems, it’s impossible for her to avoid them. Automatic lighting sensors can be just the answer you’re looking for. They’ll turn on the lights automatically when your senior enters the room so she can see. You might also want to check how bright the lighting is, just in case.
Clutter Can Cause Big Problems
Another potential issue is any type of clutter. Clothing, knick knacks, or other objects including furniture can all become a huge tripping hazard for your aging family member. Move whatever you can out of the way and make sure that very little is left on the floor, if that’s at all possible. Try to find a location for everything so that it’s out of the way.
Check Phone Locations
It’s important that your elderly family member has a phone handy in case she needs to call someone for help. If she has a landline phone, make sure that there are phones in each room. You might also want to create a list of emergency phone numbers and tape that to the back of the phone. If the phone allows you to store numbers in it, that’s even better.
Simplify Wherever You Can
The biggest thing that you can do for your senior’s safety is to simplify her living arrangements as much as possible. For some people, it’s difficult to do that easily, though. The less extra “stuff” your senior has, the easier it is for her to not only keep the home clean but also avoid potential problems.
Working with senior care providers can help you to stay on top of safety concerns in all of the areas of your senior’s home. They have a great deal of experience in knowing what to watch for in terms of keeping aging adults much safer while they’re at home.
