Aging in Place - Safety Tips

As a Certified Senior Care Auditor serving family caregivers (as well as the parent of a child with Cerebral Palsy and parents in their mid – 80s) I hope to help you to assure your seniors are safe and sound in the environments you are managing for them. There are many things I recommend you consider to make the person’s home or residence a safer place.

I like to focus on prevention and preparing the caregiver, the care recipient, and the home to avoid accidents before they happen and we do this by controlling environmental concerns upfront.

For those seniors you may be caring for, especially those with memory challenges such as Alzheimer’s, behaviors are the primary concern leading to injuries – both for you as the caregiver and the care recipient. Most of these behavioral issues can be managed medically, others, such as wandering and agitation, cannot.

As with our very young children, it is more effective to change the person’s surroundings— for example, to remove dangerous items or lock them away— than to try to change behaviors.

Adapting the home environment can give the person more freedom to move around independently and safely while removing opportunities for injury due to voluntary or in-voluntary movement.

Below are some recommendations from the National Institute on Aging that we recommend considering when you are preparing your senior’s home environment.

Basic Safety for Every Room

Add the following items to the person’s home if they are not already in place:

• Smoke and carbon monoxide detectors in or near the kitchen and in all bedrooms;
• Emergency phone numbers and the person’s own address near all phones in legible writing;
• Safety knobs as needed and an automatic shut-off switch on the stove; and
• Childproof plugs for unused electrical outlets and childproof latches on cabinet doors.

You can buy home safety products at stores carrying hardware, electronics, medical supplies, and children’s supplies.

Make sure you lock up or remove these potentially dangerous items from the home:

• Medicines, prescribed and Over the Counter;
• Alcohol;
• Cleaning and household products, such as paint thinner and matches;
• Poisonous plants;
• With the other Emergency phone numbers, include the Poison Control Center’s at 800-222-1222;
• Guns and other weapons, scissors, knives, power tools, and machinery; and
• Gasoline cans and other dangerous items in the garage.

Moving Around the House

Try these recommendations to prevent falls and injuries in the home:

• Simplify the home. Too much furniture can make it hard to move around freely;
• Get rid of clutter, such as piles of newspapers and magazines;
• Have a sturdy handrail on stairways;
• Put carpet on stairs, or mark the edges of steps with brightly colored tape so the person can see them more easily;
• Put a gate across the stairs if the person has balance problems;
• Remove small throw rugs; if needed use only rugs with nonskid backing instead;
• Make sure cords to electrical outlets are out of the way or tacked to baseboards; and
• Clean up spills right away.

Make sure the residence has good floor traction for walking. To make floors are less slippery, leave floors unpolished or install nonskid strips. Give them only shoes and slippers with good traction to help them move around safely.

Minimize Danger

As we age, we endure declining senses, especially people with Alzheimer’s disease who may not see, smell, touch, hear, and/or taste things as they had in the past. Do these things around the house to make life safer and easier for the person:

• Check all rooms for adequate lighting. Use nightlights in bathrooms, bedrooms, and hallways;
• Be careful about small pets. The person may not see the pet and trip over it;
• Reset the water heater to 120 degrees Fahrenheit to prevent burns;
• Label hot-water faucets red and cold-water faucets blue, or write the words “hot” and “cold” near them;
• Install grab bars in the tub/shower and beside the toilet; and
• Put signs near the oven, toaster, and other things that get hot. The sign could say, “Stop!” or “Don’t Touch—Very Hot!”

You can also try these other tips as well:

• Check foods in the refrigerator often. Throw out any that have gone bad;
• Put away or lock up things like toothpaste, lotions, shampoos, rubbing alcohol, soap, or perfume. They may look and smell like food to a person with Alzheimer’s;
• If the person wears a hearing aid, check the batteries and settings often.

We recommend that you continuously re-evaluate the safety of the person’s home regularly and certainly as behavior and abilities change. Make sure you have someone who does not see the person on a daily basis check in with them. Slight changes over time are not easily noticed by caregivers that spend every day with the person.

For more home safety tips, visit the NIA Publication Section.

Be Well, DrJ

Dr. Gordon Jones is a serial entrepreneur with his creative work born through his innovation development company, Birddog.Ventures. He is the Chief Health Officer and XO for Commercialization for Elements of Genius. Learn about our wearable device for eldercare givers in development called the Wellnest. Follow him above, connect with him on LinkedIn, and/or view all of DrJ's Pulse articles!