If your elderly loved one can no longer climb stairs to use a bedroom or bathroom on a second floor or descend stairs into basement laundry areas, living at home could be challenging. However, there are ways to adapt your senior loved one’s house for better use. Read on for 4 ways to make your loved one’s home easier to navigate, presented by a leading provider of home care Mississauga.
1. Try a One-Story Conversion
Many multi-floor homes can be adapted for one-floor living if there is a full bathroom on the main floor. While making this sort of alteration can be a big change for seniors, many elderly people would prefer to change their house’s layout in order to avoid moving out of their home. To make sure that this sort of project doesn’t break the bank, you can consider looking for grants, charities, and volunteer organizations that help with building ramps and adapting homes for seniors needing home care.
2. Make Room for Wheelchairs or Walkers
With some modifications, you can make an existing home easier to navigate for a senior loved one with mobility issues. Whether your loved one uses a wheelchair or walker or simply has poor balance, you can help prevent falls by moving or getting rid of extra furniture to clear obvious and wide pathways through the home. Likewise, if doorways are too narrow to move through easily, consider removing the doors and, if necessary, the door frames. If your loved one feels this makes the home too open, consider installing curtains in doorways instead to provide privacy.
3. Remove Throw Rugs
While throw rugs are attractive and are commonly used in rooms like bedrooms and bathrooms, they create a tripping hazard for people who are unsteady on their feet and wheelchairs can get hung up on them. Remove these decorative rugs and bathmats and replace as needed with no-slip mats. These mats are particularly useful for the bathroom where falls are common. If your senior relative uses a walker or similar stability device, these mats can be helpful to have throughout the house, ensuring your loved one’s mobility aid gets a good grip.
4. Make Coming Home Easy
While making indoor alterations is easier than making changes to the outside of your loved one’s home, changing the house’s exterior can also be helpful. Consider installing ramps for a wheelchair or other mobility devices. Even if your loved one doesn’t currently require a mobility aid, he or she may still benefit from walking up an incline, rather than taking the stairs.
Selecting the care services at Home Care Assistance may make getting around even easier for your senior relative. If your loved one is recovering from a stroke and needs help with safely maintaining a physical therapy regimen, or he or she has a physical condition like Parkinson’s disease that makes walking and other routine tasks challenging, a professional stroke or Parkinson’s caregiver in Oakville may provide the mobility assistance he or she requires. Give a Care Manager a call at (905) 337-1200 for more information and to set up a free in-home consultation.