Senior Living: Safe Steps for Avoiding Accidents in the Home
It can be a tremendous upheaval to leave your family home and go into care when you are a senior, which is why many families try to make the house a safer place so that their elderly loved-ones can feel safe & secure in familiar surroundings.
There are many legal cases relating to slips and falls that end up being dealt with by specialists such as Chiumento Selis Dwyer P.L, and when it comes to accidents in the home and seniors, prevention is definitely more advisable than trying to deal with the aftermath of an accident.
The importance of good home safety
As we get older, tasks that we once took for granted become a bit more of a challenge and there is often an increased risk of injury in a home occupied by seniors.
It cannot be emphasized enough just how important it is to review what measures need to be taken to ensure that you seniorize your home and make it ready for elderly occupants who might need a helping hand and need protecting from slips, falls and dangers such as burns.
Checklist
One of the best ways to make a home ready for senior living, is to go around the house and make a checklist of all of the potential dangers that exist in each room, as well as compiling a general list of dangers and safety measures.
One of your general priorities may well be to consider fitting a medical alert or buddy system, so that help can be summoned quickly when it is needed and the home can be monitored 24/7 to ensure that a loved one has not fallen or gotten into difficulty.
Simple measures such as removing or hiding electrical or telephone cords to prevent a trip and securing or removing scatter rugs to prevent a slip, could make all the difference.
Bathroom safety
Privacy, dignity and comfort are all desirable and attainable goals in a senior’s home, provided you take steps to make key areas such as the bathroom, as safe as you possibly can.
Consider getting someone with experience of these matters out to the house, so that they can take a look at how the bathroom is set up and whether bath aids should be fitted. You want your loved one to be able to get in or out of a bath with ease and you also want to make sure they don’t scold themselves with hot water, all of which are perfectly possible with the right preventative measures.
Kitchen safety
Another real danger zone in a senior’s home is the kitchen.
Aim to keep floors clean and uncluttered to reduce the danger of a slip or trip. Also consider using the various gadgets available that can automatically turn off appliances and allows the safe use of cooking facilities and utensils.
Simple measures such as storing heavier objects at waist level and ensuring that there is a good level of lighting in the kitchen, can all help reduce the danger of an accident.
As long as you follow a number of safe steps, there is a good chance that senior living will be manageable and allow your loved one to stay in their own home for as long as possible.