Safety-Proofing Your Loved One’s Home
When you have a loved one with dementia, it is important to make sure that they are living in a dementia-friendly living environment. Whether they are living in their own home or in an assisted living facility, it is important that any individual with dementia is living in a safe place. This can help minimize accidents in the home and give you peace of mind whether you are at home with these individuals or if you are caring for them long distance. Preparation is important when it comes to keep the home safe, and you will want to always take preventative steps to stop accidents before they happen so you don’t have to panic and deal with an injury due to unsafe environments. Acting preemptively is always a smart choice when it comes to keeping your home safe. Here are some tips to consider for safety-proofing your home:
- Take the time to really survey the home before making changes to make the home safer. After you have taken some safety measures, go through the home again to make the home even safer, and finally do a third check of the home to ensure you have not missed anything
- Always air on the side of caution. When an individual has dementia even obstacles that may not seem that dangerous can provide serious issues for individuals with cognitive challenges
- Take the time to not only observe the home but observe the way your loved one acts in the home as well to see how they navigate in their environment. Look for different patterns they have, things that they do in the home and different tendencies they have that could be potentially dangerous
- Start by looking for basic dangerous such as movable furniture, chairs or furniture that may blend into the walls, loose cords and wires
- Remove tables and pieces of furniture such as glass tables with blunt edges that could potentially harm your loved one should they run into them
- Maximize access to emergency alert systems such as monitoring devices, life alert systems and more that can help make sure that the individual can easily get in touch with someone should an accident take place
- Pay close attention to lighting to make sure that the home isn’t too dark or too difficult o navigate. Keep in mind that noise levels can also make a home un-safe
- Camouflage the exit door so that the individual with dementia isn’t too tempted to wander off.