National Safety Month - Home Safety for Seniors
During National Safety Month, we always aim to focus on the ways families and individuals can stay safe - particularly in their home environment. Home is a place where you should be able to relax, spend quality time with your family, and a place where everyone in your household feels safe, secure, and comfortable. For homes with children of all ages, we recommend following a few of our home safety tips for parents from Tilton’s Therapy for Tots. For homes with individuals with advanced age or seniors, there are some important safety considerations and tips to learn to help ensure you are taking every measure possible the maintain safety for everyone in the home. Read on to learn more about how your occupational therapist can help you address home safety measures.
Common Situations
It is important to understand how common it is for seniors to have an accident falling at home. There is a very high risk factor for seniors simply due to things that come along with age, like decreased hearing, vision, coordination, or muscle and bone strength. For reasons related to declining function, seniors have an increased risk of an accidental fall. One in three seniors will experience a fall on average in their lifetime and the majority of these accidents occur at home. The good news about these accidents is that they could potentially be preventable with proper care and attention to the living space. Occupational therapists can help assess your space to determine how to make your home as safe as possible.
The Basics of Home Safety
Safety in general applies to people on an individual level, as no two situations are identical. Some typical safety features that are important to mention are things like smoke detectors, carbon monoxide detectors, and regular maintenance to things like the furnace and air filters if applicable. For seniors to maintain the maximum level of independence, it is important to understand that additional safety measures should be put in place.
Home Layout
Consider the layout of your home, particularly the furniture and pathways. For older individuals or those who require walking assistance, clear pathways throughout the home are very important. Make sure that whenever possible, you are placing furniture in a way that will “lend a hand” for support while moving about from room to room. For instance, having the back of a couch or a table to hold onto while walking can lend extra support for fall prevention.
Reduce Clutter or Obstacles
It’s easy to let a stack of things pile up or to leave things around your home like blankets or pillows, but this is another measure to take to ensure home safety. Things that might obstruct walkways or cause someone to trip and fall can be eliminated and placed somewhere off the floor.
Stay Away from Wheels
It may be a comfortable chair, but that office chair on wheels should get replaced by something more stable for seniors. Wheeled chairs can be convenient in an office but are too dangerous for seniors to use if they are at risk for a fall accident.
Walking Aids
Many seniors require aids when moving around, and it is an encouraged idea if it might help increase an individual’s independence. Using a walker or a cane can help you feel confident in your steps and reduce your risk of an accident. Consider placing a few flashlights to have on hand throughout your home to give yourself a backup in case of power outage as an extra precautionary measure.
Preventative Health Measures
A universal preventative health measure we can all take is to stay hydrated! Drinking water is underrated as a way to maintain strength and stability. When someone is dehydrated, especially seniors, they can start to feel physically weak and dizzy. This can increase risk for a slip and fall accident due to a change in equilibrium. Water is a simple and effective way of making sure that doesn’t happen. Try to drink one extra glass of water per day if you are worried your water intake is not enough.
To avoid slip and fall accidents for seniors, ask your therapist about exercises you can do to strengthen and create confidence in your body or implement a routine to help prevent possibilities of an accident.
How OT Can Help
Our team works in the natural environment, typically meaning therapeutic intervention in your normal living space. Occupational therapists can come into your home and make sure your environment is properly set up for safety when doing your ADLs (activities of daily living), or can come in to assess fall prevention.
Your therapist can evaluate your space to assess safety features they would recommend to meet the needs of the individual. An occupational therapist will acknowledge the abilities of their client to move through the space as well as other regular activities like safely going to grocery store, appointments, or getting proper physical activity. They can provide the best options on an individual basis for client’s maximum level of independence.
If you care for an elderly member of your family, you’ll likely want to respect their independence as much as possible. Relying on an OT to help you navigate the best and safest route for your family will also help them feel confident about continuing to do the activities they love. Your therapist might suggest implementing adaptive equipment in certain areas of the house, like a grab bar, railing, wider door openings, a different style of door handle, or other options to help make things more supportive.
How Speech Therapy Can Help
Speech therapists and occupational therapists can also work on cognition for safety for any family members with alzheimers, early dementia, or another type of cognitive brain injury. SLPs also work with older individuals to provide services related to swallowing impairment or communication issues. Assessing the individual is the most effective first step. If you or someone you love may need assistance or you are interested in prevention of communication problem or other conditions later on, your therapist can talk to you about healthy preventative measures you can put in place. There are many different topics your therapist can help educate you and your family about to promote a healthier lifestyle for everyone in your home.
Looking for a fun way to get healthier together? Join us this month for our Therapy Tune-Up: a health and wellness challenge! This challenge is a simple and fun way to track your activity on a daily basis. Check out the download and implement some of the ideas we recommend for children as well as chair activities for seniors.
