Preventing Falls In Elderly Loved Ones

Affinity Senior Care, Caregiver Support, Fall Care, Home Assessment, Home Health Care, Mobility, Private Duty Care, Senior Care / By

Preventing Falls In Elderly Loved Ones

According to the Centers for Disease Control, falls are the leading cause of both non-fatal injuries and fatalities in older adults: This shocking statistic further notes that 1 out of 4 adults, over the age of 65, falls each year.

Due to the risk of serious health complications resulting from falls in the home, caregivers and older adults should be cognizant of various ways to prevent these accidents.

Here are a few simple things to do in order to prevent falls:

Streamline the Environment:

  1. Declutter: Random items lying around one’s home increases the risk of tripping. Remove unnecessary items from the floor, and check to make sure there is a clear path around furniture.
  2. Adequate Lighting. During the aging process, most seniors experience a deterioration in their eyesight. By ensuring rooms are well lit, the fall risk decreases.

Wardrobe Check:

  1. Appropriate Clothing: Loose or poorly fitting clothing can easily be snagged on doors, furniture, railings, knobs, cabinets, and chairs. By ensuring that clothing that fits properly to the body and is the appropriate size, this is less likely to happen.
  2. Proper Footwear: Both shoes and socks play a large role in preventing falls. Socks should have pads on the bottom to reduce the risk of slipping, and shoes should not have slippery soles and should not have laces that catch on anything.

Make Time for Routine Exercise:

By staying agile and limber, seniors experience less of a decline in their physical agility. Water aerobics, chair exercises, and neighborhood walks all help improve physical mobility and increase strength retention during the aging process.

Invest in Safety Equipment

  1. Non-slip rugs: Ensure bath mats have a non-slip surface.
  2. Toilet seats: Purchase an elevated toilet seat to ensure ease with sitting down and standing up.
  3. Grab bars: All areas with difficult steps and ingress/egress points should have grab bars for safety purposes.

The good news is that most falls are preventable. To set-up a free assessment and consultation for your individual situation, please reach out to us at: www.affinityseniorcare.com   or
call Affinity at 248-363-8430 to learn more!