Caring for your elderly or aging parents or family members can be tough. You may not be available on a 24/7 basis, which may leave your seniors in an unsupervised state. Senior care requires patience, time, support, compassion, and dedication. But while you may possess all of these qualities, you must also ensure their safety by making their abode senior living friendly.
That’s why registered and experienced in-home caregivers have crafted this blog discussing certain dos and don’ts which senior caregivers must remember. Let’s delve into the details right away.
Dos
Following are a few critical dos that you must implement in a senior’s home:
1. Create a Safe Environment
Eliminating potential slip, fall, and tripping hazards, improving accessibility, and removing unwanted obstacles should be your priority. Doing so helps make an indoor space safer and more comfortable for seniors, allowing them to easily roam around without falling.
Assess your senior’s home regularly, perform periodic de-cluttering, and install adequate, bright lighting in the hallways, corridors, and bathroom spaces. Moreover, assistive devices must be available according to your elderly loved one’s physical and psychological condition.
APEX Health Care Personnel’s homecare services providers can assist you in creating a safe and efficient space for your elderly family members. They can perform everything from daily home inspections to medication management to prevent mishaps.
2. Install Safety Features
The next step to making a home senior-living friendly is to install necessary features such as fire extinguishers, alarms, smoke detectors, cameras, and sensors. Home security tools like a reliable door camera, motion detector, and emergency call button can be very helpful for seniors.
You must also ensure the availability of a medical kit, first aid kit, and an emergency response toolbox coupled with automatic medicine and water dispensers.
3. Encourage a Healthy Lifestyle
A sedentary lifestyle is an aging individual’s worst enemy. It not only gives rise to newer, more complex illnesses but also makes seniors feel lethargic, depressed, and isolated. You should consider hiring a competent in-home caregiver for seniors to ensure that they practice an active lifestyle.
A home caregiver can assist and accompany your senior on outdoor walks, park visits, and outdoor errands and also help them exercise and meditate at home. They can maintain a healthy, nutritious diet plan for their loved ones and track their medications, hydration levels, and daily nutrient intake.
Don’ts
Certain mistakes can harm the well-being and safety of your senior at home. Here’s all that you must avoid to make your senior’s home a comfortable space for them:
1. Don’t Overburden Yourself
It’s easy to drench yourself in senior caregiving responsibilities, which may eventually lead to burnout and compromise your care recipient’s safety as well. Avoid taking on too many responsibilities per day. Seek support and communicate with your care recipient to provide services per their needs.
As a senior caregiver, your well-being is a critical factor in determining the safety of your senior. So it’s important to create a daily plan and stick to it without trying to do everything at once.
2. Don’t Dismiss Safety Concerns
As a senior caregiver, you must keep an eye on your senior’s home, physical health, and psychological state. Do not overlook potential signs of concern, such as neglect, abuse, and depression.
Moreover, report safety concerns around the house that may surface in the form of loose rugs, chipped flooring, slippery bathroom surfaces, faulty lights, and cluttered rooms.
We recommend senior caregivers take regular breaks, go out for walks, communicate with their peers, and maintain a self-care routine while they’re taking care of older adults. Self-care can help in regaining focus, washing off burnout, and maintaining consistent service quality.
APEX Health Care Personnel—Your One-Stop Solution to Home Caregiving Needs
APEX Health Care Personnel is a leading home caregiving services provider in Toronto, Ontario. They have a wide pool of registered nurses, registered practical nurses, and personal support workers on board. You can also talk to them about hiring an in-home caregiver for your elderly loved one on a part- or full-time basis.
APEX Health Care Personnel provides transparent and reliable community healthcare and homecare services across the Thunder Bay area and is continuously growing its team with licensed professionals. Contact them for more details or learn about their value-added services here.
Author’s Bio
This post’s author is an experienced in-home caregiving professional who has been working for over 10 years in the industry. She has catered to the needs of seniors with various illnesses and physical and psychological conditions and, therefore, regularly shares her learnings with APEX Health Care Personnel’s blog readers.
