How to Make Homes Safer for Seniors

Home Safe Home: Tips to Make Your Home Sweeter When it Comes to Safety

This “Aging with Grace” article was written by Jennifer Sanders and published in the Catholic Advance, The Official Newspaper of the Diocese of Wichita.

As the weather has turned colder these past few weeks, we are all spending more time inside. Likely, we are enjoying the cozy comforts of our homes and dreaming about warmer days ahead. While we are all cooped up inside this winter, it can be a good time to assess our home environments and ensure they are safe and conducive to the type of active and healthy aging journey we all hope to be on.

You’ve probably walked from room to room in your home so many times that you can do it with your eyes closed, and you may not even recognize the potential hazards lurking around you. Often until a person is packing up to move or redecorating an area, they aren’t examining their living space. I’ll highlight some potential safety risks to keep an eye out for:

• Throw rugs: This is one of the most common sources of trips and falls. While they can add a lot of color and interest to a room, they can also get caught on shoes, walkers, or even bare feet and become a hazard. Bath mats can be especially dangerous because of the combination of rug and potential water on the floor. This is one of the first items that are removed during home safety assessments, so be proactive and take them out of your décor.
• Extension cords: In our environment, we aren’t permitted to use extension cords in resident rooms due to a life safety code. Even in a home setting, cords can be a trip hazard. It’s best to plug your electrical devices into the closest outlet. If you do need additional outlets, a power strip is a better option.
• Inadequate lighting: When we built the patio homes at Shepherd’s Crossing, they were designed to promote healthy, active aging. One of the elements that contributes to this is natural light and adequate lighting in the room. We built the homes to allow for maximum light, emphasizing windows and even a skylight. At home, it’s important to open draperies to let in the sunshine and make sure that rooms have sufficient lighting with higher-wattage bulbs in fixtures and lamps. It is amazing what a little light can do for our mood, and it’s best for safer navigation of our homes.
• Pets: For those of you who frequently read this column, this might be confusing, as I’ve previously shared the emotional benefits of pet ownership. While that is all true, for someone who is having increased difficulty with mobility, those tiny cats and dogs can inadvertently get tangled around a person’s feet and cause them to fall.

Of course, there are obvious things like candles and space heaters, we likely all know these can potentially cause harm. One of my roles here at Catholic Care Center is reviewing hospital referrals for patients who need short-term skilled rehab, which is often due to some sort of accident. In thinking about advice to offer in this article, I was thinking back about some of those scenarios. It is often the things we don’t necessarily think of that lead to trouble. Things like not turning on a light when we are up moving around because we don’t want to wake a sleeping spouse or thinking that standing on a chair “just one time” to reach something on a top shelf.

Maybe in some way this can come full circle, and we can learn from the “mistakes” of others. What better time to look around our house and take inventory of potential hazards than now, since it’s cold outside and we’re inside anyway?

When it comes to independent living, assisted living, and senior living in Wichita – Catholic Care Center offers award-winning compassionate care. If you have any questions about safety for seniors (or any other aspect of senior living), we’re happy to help. Please call us at (316) 744-2020 or contact us online!