Anti-slip stickers are made with a high quality porous material, which helps elderly persons to avoid slips and falls. If there are steps at home, whether they are stairs to another floor or just a ladder climb, it is best to stick-on anti-slip stickers which can prevent elderly persons from sliding down the steps. The best advice for elderly parents is to ask them not to climb any steps unnecessarily.。
Durable, high-impact, easy-to-grasp plastic handle fits most door knobs. Door knob turners are particular useful for round door knobs as their comfort elongated grip over molding provide additional grip and leverage to door handles. Door knob turners are inexpensive and can be a great help to the elderly and disabled who can simply push the handle down to open doors, which is ideal for people with arthritis or weak in the wrist.
Wireless door buzzer with flashing light is a great, inexpensive solution for the hearing impaired, which helps make sure you know there is a visitor. Taking the device around the house will alert you both by auditory sound and visual light. The device can also be used as a detector, if used by an elderly person as a necklace. By pressing the alarm button on the necklace, the bell will ring, and this can alert people nearby to any call for help.
Attention should be paid to home furnishings if parents are suffering from Parkinson's disease, cognitive disorders or they stagger when they walk. On the one hand, we need to give enough space for the elderly persons to move around. On the other hand, we need to prevent the impact of their being hurt by sharp edges of furniture. Various shapes and thickness of furniture anti-collision plastic are available at building materials shops. We can tailor cut the required length, and then post-on the plastic onto the furniture edges to prevent collision.
Elderly persons may sometimes think that they are familiar with the environment, and then they can become less alert. With the decline in physical and visual condition, falls and bumps become inevitable. While it is important to prevent accidents, the reduction of the damage caused by an accident is equally important. You can reduce the severity of bruises if furniture corners are installed with corner guards. Various styles of corner guards can be bought easily from accessory shops or hardware stores at a very low price.
Sofa which is too deep or too soft are not good for elderly persons, as it is so difficult for them to get up. Elderly persons with joint problems may even get hurt if they get up too hastily or not properly. Generally speaking, the depth of the sofa cushion for sitting should be the length of the thigh up to the waist. The sofa cushion for sitting should have a certain degree of supporting hardness. There are shops which sell sofa cushions with a hardness of your choice. Maybe, you can buy cushion with sufficient thickness to reduce the depth of the sofa.
360 degree rotating cushions enable users to stand from a chair around a table without having to move buttocks, legs and hands. Without the need to twist the body or to leave their seats, rotating seats turns the body easily towards the shower doors. It especially works for stroke parents. Also, arthritis hip can be alleviated by the rotating and turning action of the cushion. In a long drive, users can turn in a chair or seat with the least body motion, because this swivel seat cushion rotates up to 360 degrees.
Stander Assist-A-Tray is a great news to elderly persons with joint problems. Stander Assist-A-Tray features an ergonomic grip handle that provides support in and out of a couch, chair or recliner. Combining an Easy-Stand Safety Handle and a multi-use swivel tray, the Stander Assist-A-Tray provides both improved safety and greater convenience.
Elderly parents weak in waist or after stroke will no longer be capable to get up from bed. It is best to install bedside handrails for them. Bedside handrails help with sitting, standing, rising and rolling over. The two vinyl covered steel handles fit home style beds. By leveraging, elderly persons will not get easy to fall down with fragile effort. Bedside handrails are convenient and easy-to-install, which shall be available from most senior people accessory stores or rehabilitation supplies stores.
Long-term bed-ridden senior persons need to have their bodies turned around regularly. Otherwise, they can get skin problems and sores easily. However, it is quite a challenge for a helper to turn the senior’s body several times a day. A body-turner can save the effort of the helper and prevent straining the tendons.
Even written on notepad or notice taps, elderly parents still forget their own and important phone numbers. There is a kind of one-photo-one-dial phone available in the market. Every photo-button of it represents a family member, a friend or frequently-used phone numbers. No need to memorize groups of numbers; simply press the photo-button desired and we are connected.
There is also a kind of big-ringer big-sound and big-button home phone, for seniors with hearing and visual problems.
Getting up to toilet, to drink or to move around in the mid-night is a risk for elderly persons as they can easily trip over something and fall down in the dark. Installing night-light-sensors in lavatories, corridors, living and dining rooms and kitchens will enable lamps to automatically light up whenever we are in the induction range of night-light-sensors. There are a variety of sensor lights with various operating modes. You can choose according to needs.
In Hong Kong, electrical outlet plugs are often installed on the foot line, or even on the ground or behind the furniture. To use the plugs, we need to bend our body or even lean on the ground. This is very difficult for senior persons. Sometimes, we may get hurt with our head banged on furniture when standing back. Rather than altering the locations of the plugs, we can make use of a remote control universal power socket. Simply set the remote control and the socket sensor, and you can operate the switch of the plug.
Long-and-tangled wires surrounding furniture at home can pose risk to everyone. You will not only get tripped, but also pull down the connected electrical appliances, and this can be disastrous. Hence, properly installed wires with wire holders or core organizer is primary safety at home. Different types of wire holders are available in household goods stores and life style stores.
The Power Failure Alarm guarantees that your electrical device is getting power. If the power fails, the Alarm will trigger a loud beeping sound and a flashing LED. It is always on duty and its ultra-low power consumption allows Lithium battery to last for 10 years or more. If the family meets a power outage at night, and the old parents are left in home alone, they can then go to the Alarm by the flashing light indication, and use it like a torch and seek help or fix the power supply problem.
Elderly parents suffering from cognitive disorders will gradually forget their own things and sometimes the ways to avoid accidents which they learned during childhood. They may get curious about things which may pose danger such as power sockets. While the best way is to have power sockets fitted with twisting buttons, the easiest way is to seal off the vacant electrical outlets by socket covers. Even the smallest accidents may pose the highest risk.
For parents who are less mobile, providing them with a wireless personal pager may help. They can then take the initiative to seek help, rather than awaiting for their family members to become alert of their situation and give them help. Sometimes, one minute too late can be very late to salvage a situation.
In the market, there is a kind of mechanical clothes rack which you can easily pull down to level the upper layer of hangers with the reach of your hands. You can order these racks when you modify your wardrobe. However, the racks when pulled down will occupy space and may block the walking space of your parents so you need to consider this point before placing order for such a rack.
It is hard to take off clothes from hangers on the upper rack, and it is dangerous to climb high. With hanger sticks, you can easily hang or take clothes up and down the rack. Hanger sticks are available in home stores, and are light in weight and retractable.
It is not easy to find the right clothes or shoes if you fumble your wardrobe in the dark. Wardrobe sensors may help you. Light is on when wardrobe doors are open and off when closed. This is particularly useful for old parents with visual degradation, so that they do not need to rely on their failing memory of where particular items are placed. Wardrobe sensors are safe to use, as they use battery power. It can be installed in the closet as well as kitchen cabinets, stoves, bathroom cabinet mirror-fronts, bedsides and drawers. With these sensors, these usually poor-lit storage areas can be given bright light which can reduce injury and time to find the items.
Memory degradation is the most annoying thing for elderly persons. They always forget the whereabouts of things and when they are placed. Wardrobe closet storage organizer can help them systematically sort items, put them in proper order, reduce panic and help prevent accidents. This also reduce carers’ time and effort if things in the closet are placed orderly. Commonly used items should be placed in locations below the line of sight to the lower abdomen. Other items, according to the frequency of use and the weight of the items, shall be placed at the upper level or below the lower abdomen. You can first read about the concept of home storage and buy the right storage items at homeware stores, large furniture stores, daily necessities stores, or department stores.
