Whether you have someone in your home that has special home care giving needs, or you on about to hire someone to take care of your elderly parents in their home, you should take note of these safety tips before doing so.
Once someone becomes elderly, things that once were not a problem for them can soon become a hazard to them. When folks age they tend to become a bit clumsy and not so sure footed as they once were. This is one of the reasons why you need to take care to make sure the entire house is safe for them. In this article we will discuss a few home care giving safety tips.
A good safety tip for area rugs is to tape them down to the floor. This way if your elderly family member uses a walker or has a hard time being sure footed, they will not trip over the rug and potentially fall as a result.
Another home care giving safety tip is to install extra long railings to any stairs in the home. Make sure these railings extend beyond the first and last steps at both ends of the staircase. Also be sure that the extra railings are sturdy enough to hold body weight. Elderly people use stair railings to not only guide them along the stairs but for balancing purposes as well.
Bathrooms can be a very hazardous place for the elderly. It is important to place non slip rugs throughout the entire bathroom so that no one falls and gets hurt. You should purchase a non slip mat for the tub as well. Installing a grab bar in the shower is a good idea as well so that the elderly person will be able to hold themselves up in the shower when they feel weak. They can also use this grab bar as a means of getting in and out of the shower more easily.
You may need to have your kitchen appliances lowered so that your elderly family member can reach them and be able to use them on his or her own. Taking the steps to make your home more friendly for the elderly can go a long way towards helping them feel more a part of things. Also it is important that the lighting in the kitchen be bright enough for the elderly person to see what he or she is doing.
If someone has been hired to take care of your loved one in their home, you should still see to it that these types of upgrades and changes are done so that life can be as easy as it possibly can for your loved one.
