Is Your Home Safe Enough for Seniors with Alzheimer’s Disease?

When family caregivers are looking after elderly relatives with Alzheimer’s disease, there’s no doubt that they face numerous challenges. Your aging loved one is dealing with an aggressive disease that destroys brain cells, and in turn, affects their judgment, personality, and memory.

Seniors with Alzheimer’s disease have a very high risk of getting injured in their residence, so you need to make sure home is safe for your aging loved one. There are several things you can do to greatly reduce the risk of keeping your aging loved one with Alzheimer’s disease safe at home.

What are the Dangers at Home for Seniors with Alzheimer’s Disease?

Alzheimer’s disease affects an elderly person’s mind so much that it cannot be relied upon to provide good judgment, natural warning signs or cohesive thought. Seniors with Alzheimer’s disease often make mistakes with schedules timelines and memory, and frequently demonstrate paranoia and personality changes. As memories of the past collide with the present and timelines don’t hold steady, many seniors put themselves at risk even at home.

Some examples of home safety issues for seniors with Alzheimer’s disease include fire hazards with stovetops and ovens, cutting themselves with kitchen utensils, slip and fall accidents, medication mismanagement, ingesting dangerous substances on accident, dropping breakable objects, wandering, and other miscellaneous household issues. Family caregivers must be quite vigilant when they are senior-proofing their home.

Keeping Seniors with Alzheimer’s Disease Safe

The most important thing about keeping elderly adults with Alzheimer’s disease safe is that they should never be alone. Constant care is a must, so if family caregivers cannot provide that, they need to use other resources. Many arrange with other family members to take turns, but hiring senior care providers is the best way to ensure companionship and supervision for the aging adult. Above all, there shouldn’t be a time when the elderly adult is all alone.

Home safety modifications should include installing locks or alarms on outside doors, disable dangerous appliances like stoves, lock up things like kitchen knives and medication, and put the water heater temperature on a lower setting. Family caregivers and senior care providers should also work on strategies to keep the aging adult calm, focused on things they can do, like sweeping the floor or folding laundry.

Keeping elderly relatives with Alzheimer’s disease safe and comfortable at home requires a lot of effort, and family caregivers cannot do it alone. By mixing household safety modifications with the support of family members and senior care providers, however, aging adults with this devastating disease have the best chance of avoiding injury and staying safe at home.

If you or an aging loved-one are considering hiring Home Health Care in Burke, VA, please contact the caring staff at BrightHope Home Care and Senior Care today. Call us at 703-595-2878 ~ We serve all of Northern VA.