Elder Care in Dallas, TX
Keeping your elderly parents safe and secure is one of the most important elements of your elder care plan. By modifying your loved ones’ home to make it safer, you can help them to stay healthy, comfortable, and secure as they age in place. While you are likely familiar with many of the dangers throughout the home, such as steep stairs, knives and other sharp implements, slippery bathtubs, loose carpets, and unreliable locks, there may be dangers that you have never considered.
Keeping your aging loved ones safe sometimes means evaluating areas you take for granted so you can address unexpected dangers and make the home even safer. Work with your parents’ elderly health care services provider to find potential hazards throughout the home and modify them. Use this checklist to get you started evaluating your parents’ home and finding the unexpected dangers that could be putting them at risk:
• Loose hanging frames. Hanging family pictures and pieces of artwork throughout the home is a wonderful way to bring color, energy, and memories into rooms, but if the frames are not hanging securely on the wall, they could be dangerous. A frame that falls off a wall can hit your elderly parent or cover the floor with broken glass. Ensure all hanging frames are secured to the wall from more than one point and can withstand heavy footsteps and impacts on the wall near the hanging points. Consider removing glass from frames and replacing it with acrylic to eliminate shatter risks.
• Sharp furniture corners. If you have ever walked into the corner of a coffee table or the arm of a chair when you were not paying attention to where you were going, you know just how much this type of injury can hurt. Seniors are more susceptible to bruising, cuts, and even fractures than younger adults, making sharp furniture corners more of a danger. Consider covering these corners with rubber or foam material or removing potentially dangerous pieces from the home.
• Extension cords. Many homes, particularly older homes, do not have enough electrical outlets to accommodate the high number of electronic devices and appliances used by today’s consumer. This may tempt you to use extension cords to hook up devices from across the room or down the hall, or adapters to plug several devices into the same outlet. Take caution when using extension cords as these can present a major tripping hazard. Never cover cords with a rug and allow people to walk on them, which can damage the internal components of the wires and lead to shorts. You should also avoid overloading outlets by using adapters to plug in several appliances at the same time. If you attempt to plug in several high energy-consuming devices at the same time, you can cause a short that may cause a fire.
• Dryers. Whether you handle the laundry needs of your elderly parents, this is one of the responsibilities of their elder home care provider, or your parents take care of their laundry themselves, it is essential to make sure the lint trap is emptied after every load. Lint in the lint trap can spark, causing a fire that moves through the walls and can cause extensive damage before detection.
If You Or An Aging Loved One Are Considering Hiring Elder Care in Dallas, TX, Please Call The Caring Staff At Second Family Home Care At (972) 846-HOME (4663).