The golden years – building a safer home for the elderly
You enter the world as an excited child, willing to learn everything that comes your way, from sights to sounds to numbers, religion, cultures, cuisines—and everything else in between. Your curiosity and a desire to know more about the unknown peak during early adulthood and then plateau, where you seem to be content with life in general. However, as you grow older (and wiser), the learning needed to traverse safely through the world you live in reduces by the day, and life itself slows down to match your pace.
The elderly have a more relaxed approach towards life. They look at things objectively, reflect on them, and carefully—as opposed to the fast-paced world they came from. However, the transition to a new phase of life also comes with its own set of challenges.
Challenges faced by the elderly
As you age, the number or the type of challenges you face increase manifold—and your decreased ability to cope or work around the challenges does not help either. This is why most accidents with the elderly occur in their own home. Here’s how age can impact your quality of life:
Balance
Balance is something we learn during our childhood. We learn to walk and balance ourselves on two feet—and then to walk and run without falling over. As we age, our reflexes slow down, impacting our capability to maintain balance - increasing the frequency of falls—some of which can confine us to a bed.
Mobility
As we age, our joints become stiff or inflamed, impacting our mobility and even our capability to sit up or down without assistance.
Independence
Possibly the most significant impact age has on us is on independence. As we age, our limited vision, impacted mobility, and flexibility take a toll on our independence or capability to do things independently. Although this impact is minimal at first when we need assistance getting up or sitting down, it soon progresses to basic tasks such as dressing ourselves or going to the bathroom on our own.
Building a safer world
The elderly soon realize that it increasingly difficult to heal after an injury. This is why your caregivers need to ensure you feel safe and secure at home. Here’s how you can ensure the safety of your parents, patients or those under your care:
Safer mobility
Walking is easy but ensuring that you walk safely and not end up with a fall is extremely important. Products such as canes, crutches, rollators, walkers and wheelchairs can help you get around safely. For those with minor mobility problems, a powered wheelchair or a scooter is a great way to get around safely.
Maintaining hygiene
Taking a shower or using the toilet seems to be a trivial task for most of us, but for the elderly, something as simple as this can be a daunting task. Many falls occur in the bathroom, and ensuring that you have grab handles to get up from the toilet or a shower chair to sit on can help you stay safe and clean. Additionally, raised toilet seats and toilet seats with handles can go a long way in ensuring that you get the assistance you need while getting up from the toilet. If you are unable to walk, a wheelchair with an in-built commode is the best way for you to maintain personal hygiene.
Dressing
Getting dressed is daunting for the elderly due to limited limb movement or impacted joint mobility. Using dressing sticks, leg lifters, and stocking aids can help you look your best daily.
Sleeping
Taking a nap is easy, but for those who spend a lot of time in bed, developing pressure sores is a significant problem. An alternating pressure overlay mattress can help the elderly ensure that they do not develop pressure sores, even if they cannot turn to their side or change sleeping positions on their own.
Padding furniture
Just like with children, bumps and hitting into furniture can lead to fractures in the elderly. This is why removing sharp-edged furniture can go a long way in ensuring that the elderly can move about safely in their own home.
Safety is above all else
Staying safe is easier than avoiding or ignoring problems. Providing all the love, attention and safety aids to the elderly under your care will ensure that they lead a happy and fulfilling life. Staying safe while taking a walk, going to a nearby store, using the restroom, taking a shower or even sitting down or getting up from a chair may require assistance—and having assistive devices or fixtures can go a long way in ensuring independence and safety for the elderly. After all, in our golden years, we all need to feel safe, secure, and independent.
How can Sanrai help?
Innovative products from companies such as Sanrai can help the elderly and those with disabilities lead independent lives. Sanrai has a wide range of products from companies such as Drive DeVilbiss that can help the elderly get up and about, have a better social life, maintain personal hygiene and do everyday tasks easily.
Final Thoughts
Also Read- Five things you must know about mobility, arthritis, and independence
