Recent studies have found that when a senior experiences a serious injury, such as a broken hip, it takes them considerably longer to recover and often results in a move to an assisted care facility. Serious injuries also dramatically increase the chance that the senior will die the same year as the accident. Of all of the different types of accidents that seniors report, injuries from falls are consistently the most common type of accidental injury.
Since the effects of a fall can be so long lasting for a senior and touch so many aspects of their lives. It becomes very important to make efforts to prevent senior falls. One of the first steps is evaluating the seniors living space and how they interact with it. This will help make obvious any tasks that are difficult for the senior to safely complete on their own and what areas of the home could present risks to the seniors health.
When evaluating the seniors living space, it is important to consider what types of risks it offers to the senior and address each risk you find. It helps to go room by room, to ensure that each room can be safely accessed. Once you know all of the potential risks in a room, you can take measures remove or mediate these risks.
For example, consider the bathroom. It would be important to make sure that the entire bathroom is well lit and the floor free from obstacles.
There should be grab bars placed throughout the bathroom, including in the shower or bath tub, and the grab bars should be well secured to the wall. Consider removing towel racks and replacing them with a thin grab bar. This way, the towel racks will be strong enough to support the weight of the senior in an emergency.
Non-skid bathmats should be secured to the bottom of the bathtub and shower. In the rest of the bathroom, non-skid bathmats should also be placed. It is important to make sure that the bathmats can get wet without presenting a slipping hazard. Carpet bathmats should typically be avoided and it is important to remember that any temporary carpet can cause a fall if the corner can be easily turned up.
All of the seniors amenities should also be easy to reach and find. This includes making the toothbrush and toothpaste easy to find, as well as ensuring that the soap and shampoo for the shower can be easily reached.
When addressing fall risks, it is also important to observe the senior using the living space, which allows you to find tasks that they find difficult.
For instance, after watching them use the shower, you might observe that they have difficulty getting into or out of the bath tub. If this is the case, you would need to find a way to make this task easier and therefore safer. One option would be to switch to a walk-in shower with a bench, which is often much easier to use for a senior. Another would be to install a walk-in bathtub or use some sort of bath lift to make getting into and out of the bath tub easier.
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