The elderly need a lot of help around the house,
but it is not often that each and every member of the family will be around to
help. A typical household may not have a hired nurse or maid, and so it becomes
the duty of the children or grandchildren to assist their aged parents or
grandparents. Assistance may need for simple walking, to getting a hard to
reach item. The wisdom comes in the form of self-assistance; that is, in the
ability for the elderly to help themselves. This can easily be made possible with
proper planning and slight adjustment to your daily routine.
Eliminate obstacles or de-clutter around the
house. What may seem like a piece of cake to an agile twenty-year-old may be a
challenge for a seventy-year-old. These daily obstacles pose threats ranging
from mild to critical. For example, glassware in the kitchen and loose mat
lying on the floor can be a very serious threat. Problems like that can be
remedied by practical thinking: eliminate the obstacle, not the object. Retro-fitting
the house to meet the needs of the elderly, while at the same time preserving
the homeowner's comfort of living can be a much simpler task than perceived.
Solutions can be entirely within the realm of
practicality, while others involve expenses. The most obvious and less costly
solution is to have a single storey household. At least, the aging parents
should be moved to the ground level for easy accessibility. Doing so will evade
the most frightening scenario of falling down the stairs. If possible, ensure
that all necessities remain available and accessible on the ground level,
especially a bathroom.
Bathroom is a one of the hazardous venue of
household injuries. Wet floor are most slippery on smooth flooring such as
tiles and marbles. Slip proof your floor with anti-slip coating or tapes,
provide a non-slip bath mat inside the
bathtub and showers. Adding grab bars
at showers, bathtub and toilet area help to provide additional support for elderly.
Most of these items are inexpensive and easy to install and they impede the risk
of fall. Read article on Planning for Aging in Place.
Assisting elderly to get on with life can be as
easily as installing an amplified house
phone and portable door chime for those with hearing problem.
Equip
your television and radio with a wireless
headset for parents with declined hearing ability. This way, the volume can
be turned up to suit their needs without disrupting the rest of the household.
Another measure would be to enable subtitles and captions for movies and
television. A magnified nail clipper
for nail cutting and visual aide magnifier
for reading is convenient for those with depreciated vision. Threading a needle
is a challenge for elderly with declining vision. A needle
threader is suitable for used.
Elderly
with arthritis in their hand may have difficulty turning the door knob. Put on easy grid rubber cover over door knob
or change door knob to lever handle. Use a key
turner in order to establish a firmer grip on key to open a door
painlessly. An automatic can opener to help them to do perform difficult task of opening a can. Problem with buttoning shirt, sure grid button hook can help you to button effortlessly.
A household gadget to consider is audio reminder, which will remind an elderly
person of certain tasks via pre-recorded messages. Pill dispenser also come in handy to remind elderly person to take
medicine on time.
There are quite a number of household gadgets that can aid in everyday life just as well as practical decisions of aging in place. With these tips in mind, use your home to their advantage, all without necessitating too much change.
Other than all this household gadgets the security and safety of our aging parent is our greater concern. More than once, elderly in our neighbourhood had became the victims of fire, robbery, theft and fraud. Hence, keeping our home safe also one of the aspect that we must look into. Read the article on Safety and Security at Home.
Too often accidents happen at the smallest negligent.
Elderly may be at home alone for hours. Hence, the best option would be to
organize a lifestyle alongside your aged parents or grandparents, a lifestyle
that suits them. This makes it easier for everyone involved, as self-assistance
is the most ideal way to retain their freedom and their dignity.
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