Elderly Care Tips: Creating a Safe and Comfortable Home for a Senior With Alzheimer’s

Elderly Care in Clayton, NC

Your elderly parents’ home is their most precious environment. This is where they are comfortable, relaxed, and surrounded by the items they love. When considering aging in place, however, it is important to recognize that your aging loved ones’ home becomes not just where they live, but where their elderly care plan is put into action by all of the members of their care team. Making home modifications that create a safer, healthier environment for your elderly loved ones supports your care efforts, encourages their continued independence to as high a level as possible, and improves their overall quality of life.

This is particularly true when it comes to providing a beneficial care environment for seniors coping with Alzheimer’s disease or other forms of dementia. These home modifications can make it easier for you and your aging parents’ referred caregiver to give your parents the care and assistance they need on a daily basis, while also helping your parents enjoy their home safely and confidently.

While many of the modifications you can make are subtle, others may seem like a disruption at first and it may take time for your senior parents to get accustomed to the changes. This can be especially true if your parents have significant memory loss and cognitive processing challenges that may make it difficult for them to understand or remember the changes. You may want to introduce these changes gradually and encourage your parents’ referred caregiver to engage these changes frequently so your parents can become more familiar with them.

Consider some of these home modifications to make your aging parents’ home safer and more comfortable for your seniors with Alzheimer’s disease:

• Make signs with emergency phone numbers, your home address, and your parents’ names and put these near all of the phones in the home.
• If you are not in the home or you are doing something and cannot answer the phone, set the answering machine to pick up after the minimum number of rings. This gives callers the best opportunity to leave messages and protects your parents from possible phone scams.
• Install locks on all doors and windows that will keep your parents from wandering. Avoid using locks inside the home in rooms such as bathrooms as your parents could get trapped inside.
• Hide spare keys outside in well-concealed areas such as wrapped in aluminum and buried or in a magnetic key box in the tire well of your vehicle so if your parents do lock you or their referred caregiver out of the home, you can get back inside.
• Replace traditional doorknobs with handles or levers that are easier on aging hands and require fewer steps to use. The idea of turning a doorknob and opening the door may seem easy to you, but the process can be challenging for those with dementia.
• Avoid clutter as much as possible. Papers, knickknacks, and other items piled on tables, counters, and mantles can create the feeling of danger and cause confusion and disorientation. Clear surfaces as much as possible and keep things organized in symmetrical, easy-to-understand patterns.
• Remove any poisonous plants from the home. Seniors may confuse them with edible vegetables and consume them, putting them at serious risk.

If your elderly parents have Alzheimer’s disease or another form of dementia, get in touch with Griswold Home Care in North Eastern Raleigh-Wake Forest for recommendations of home modifications you can make to create a home that is more comfortable, safer, and conducive to improved elderly care.

The articles posted on this blog are provided for general information and discussion purposes only.  These articles are not intended to suggest anything with respect to the operations or services of this office.