If your senior parents are getting to an age where their mobility is restricted and their hearing is impaired, these four simple but effective additions to your home can make all the difference.
Installing safety features in your bathroom and a stairlift in the home can prevent your parents from falling, exhausting themselves, and losing confidence and independence, as they lose faith in their ability to move around the home themselves.
Moreover, a fall alarm that they can wear on their person will reassure them that even when accidents do happen, they will always have access to help. Finally, a visual signaller that the doorbell or telephone is ringing will allow your parents to accept calls and visitors, even if they cannot hear the bells. This allows them to keep in touch with the outside world and stay social, which is hugely important for their happiness and quality of life.
In addition, continuous monitoring of senior parents’ health is a must. When seniors have mobility problems due to their medical condition or failing health, they need expert guidance. Physical therapists from Miranda’s Physio Steps and other trusted healthcare institutions can help senior parents safely navigate at home through therapy.
Bringing Your Senior Parents Home – Safety Features For The Bathroom
One of the most difficult rooms to navigate if your mobility is impaired is the bathroom. Especially if the bathroom was designed for able-bodied people.
A simple but effective measure you can take is to install handrails in the shower and by the toilet to help your elderly parents get in and out of the shower, and on and off the toilet without unbalancing and falling.
Handrails promote mobility. The best places to install handrails in the bathroom are next to the toilet, shower, and tub. A handrail (about 18 inches high and 24 inches long) next to the toilet can help people get on and off the toilet safely. Also, a handrail near the entrance of the bathroom can help a senior maintain their balance when entering or exiting the room. The same holds for a handrail near the sink, helping seniors when washing their hands or brushing their teeth.
The shower can be a dangerous environment for people not steady on their feet, as it can be slippery and steamy, so visibility and grip are reduced. A shower stool can be installed into your current shower to help your parents take some weight off their legs and improve stability. Or else, your bathroom can be converted into a wet room, which eliminates the need to get in and out of the shower completely.
If your parents cannot stand long enough to safely shower or maneuver on and off the toilet, you could get them a commode. These wheelchairs come with a hole in the chair and a basin underneath, that can be used to do the toilet, or the basin can be removed and the commode can be wheeled directly over the toilet, so your parents can still use the bathroom, but do not need to stand up.
The commode can also be wheeled into the wet room and your parents can shower, or be assisted to shower, without having to stand. Showering can be hugely draining for elderly people, so this is a huge advantage for your parents’ safety and wellbeing and preserves their energy.
Bringing Your Senior Parents Home – Install A Stairlift
Another common obstacle in the home for people with restricted mobility is the staircase. As well as being exhausting for some, stairs also pose very dangerous fall hazards. The simple solution is to install a stairlift. Whether your staircase is narrow, straight, curved, or outside, https://www.stairlifthelper.co.uk/ has a stairlift that will work for your home. This will save your parents a lot of effort and energy, while also massively reducing risks of injury, falling, and over-working their hearts, muscles, or lungs.
Installing a stairlift will help to preserve your parents’ independence and freedom within the home, as they won’t be confined to just half the house, or have to wait for assistance to move around.
Bringing Your Senior Parents Home – Fall Alarm
A brilliant and simple device you should definitely get for your elderly parents is a fall alarm. This is a motion sensor alarm they can wear on their wrist or around their neck that you can use in case of an emergency to reach help. Depending on the type of alarm, your parent can press the button, or it will automatically phone an emergency helpline.
This device is designed to prevent your parents from being stuck on the floor, unable to get back up, for hours. This is a more common scenario than we would like to think and can be incredibly painful, as well as terrible for your parent’s mental health, and so best avoided at all costs.
Fall alarms reassure your parents that they can still move around the house, garden, and even the community, with the knowledge that help is always at hand. This is a massive confidence boost and also helps to maintain their independence.
Bringing Your Senior Parents Home – Audio and Visual Signaller for Doorbell and Telephone
A very clever little device that can enhance your parents’ lives is the signaller you can get that connects to the doorbell and landline, and flashes and vibrates if someone is calling or ringing the bell. This is ideal for elderly people with hearing loss, who otherwise might miss a call or a visitor. You can also get visual alarm clocks, carbon monoxide detectors, and more.
One of the biggest problems for elderly people who cannot get out of the house as freely as they once did, or whose hearing is impaired, is loneliness. Sometimes a five-minute phone call or a visit from a friend or family member can make all the difference, and this device can help your parents stay connected with people. This is a priceless gift.
Bringing Your Senior Parents Home – Choose Safety
These sour simple changes and additions to your home can make all the difference to your elderly parent’s safety, wellbeing, confidence, independence, and quality of life. If you are worried about your parents’ ability to live at home, safely and comfortably, these devices and safety features will go a long way to reassure you that it is doable and that they are in a safe environment.