Home Health Care Cutler Bay FL
Your loved one has always felt safest at home, but it’s possible that some areas can be dangerous for her, especially if she has Alzheimer’s disease. Try some of these ideas for making your loved one’s home safer for her.
Why This Is Important
Identifying and restricting access to some areas of your loved one’s home can be essential for keeping her safe and healthy. Your loved one might wander off into one of these areas and, if it’s not made safer or restricted in some way, she could find herself in a serious pickle. It’s better to try to define these unsafe areas before they’re a true danger so that you can be prepared.
What Areas Are Danger Zones?
Some danger zones are specific to your loved one, her home, and her tendency to perform certain dangerous actions. For example, she may not be stable on stairs, making the stairway extremely dangerous but she’s perfectly fine cooking in the kitchen still. Other elderly loved ones may have significant difficulty in the kitchen, making it a high danger zone.
Some of the areas that might be danger zones for your loved one can include:
Garages
Sheds
Exterior doors and windows
Attics
Kitchens
Bathrooms
Bedrooms
How to Limit Access
Limiting access to any danger zones can feel horrible to a family caregiver. After all, your loved one isn’t a child or a pet, so restricting her in any way can feel wrong. Since the overarching goal here is her safety, however, it’s important to look at the issue from that point of view. Look at what would make that area safer or the safest way to restrict access. A door could simply need an extra lock, for example. In kitchens, perhaps you remove and hide the knobs for the stove. Try to be creative and yet make the room as safe as you can for your loved one.
Revisit These Zones Regularly
As your loved one’s disease progresses, you’ll need to revisit which areas of the house are still safe and which are now dangerous for her. It’s better to be proactive with this rather than waiting until something happens.
Make sure that you set up safe zones for your loved one, too. This helps her to know that there are parts of the home that are for her alone.
