Nearly a third of the elderly, particularly over the age of 65, have a disability. People are living longer and longer, but that doesn’t mean that being elderly is all about taking cruises to the South of France or vacationing in Hawaii with the grandkids.
The plain fact is that strokes, falls, and accidents affect thousands every day, and without simple tools to make life easy and bearable, many of those would be forced to move into a nursing home. According to the CDC, one out of every four people over 65 if the U.S. falls each year. Many of those falls take place in the shower, something simple handrails and flip-down seat rests can help eliminate. They are relatively cheap to purchase, easy to install, and they save lives.
Climbing and Descending Stairs:
Another high risk for the elderly is climbing and descending stairs.
Consider these tips:
1. Eliminate Stair Runners as a slip hazard
2. Make sure the stairway has sturdy railings
3. Create fold down rest seats about every 7 or 8 feet They are cheap and easy to install
4. Install non-slip stair slips
5. Make sure there is adequate lighting on the stairs
By Dressing Aids:
There are numerous aids you can purchase for a very reasonable price, that helps the elderly dress themselves. Hooks on sticks allow you to pick up a shirt or sweater and bring it up to your shoulders. Long shoehorns will help you put on and remove your shoes. There are hooking devices that allow the infirm to button and unbutton a sweater with only one hand.
Fire Egress Systems:
Unfortunately, if there is a fire in the house, most disabled elderly can’t run down the stairs. However, there are various places where Fire Evac Systems are available such an under the mattress fire egress system that allows the disabled to be towed quickly downstairs for around $120.
There are various retailers such as Safety+Mobility evacuation equipment for products that can be helpful and are used for EVAC Safe. The way this one works is it fits under the mattress, and in the event of a fire, an adult helper straps the disabled person onto their bed, and the system allows both the disabled person and the mattress to be towed down the stairs. The system allows the bed to slide on both carpet and vinyl. More expensive systems allow a person who uses a wheelchair to transfer to a chair designed to be quickly moved down the stairs.
Reaching Devices:
Did you ever catch your 75-year-old mother teetering on a rickety step stool, or even climbing onto a chair to reach the salt or pepper in the kitchen? Besides giving you a near hard attack, the chances she will fall are extremely high. Buy her a reach tool that will retrieve the pepper or that bottle of ketchup for her. No ladders, no chairs. No chance of falling. These are extremely useful for those who live in older homes, which were built for speed and not designed with the elderly in mind.
Medical Alert Systems:
Whether in Australia, New Zealand, Canada, the U.S. Europe or Latin America, practically everywhere with Western technology, you can lease a medical alert system for the elderly. You’ve seen the television commercials. And Elderly woman falls in her basement and screams with agony, “help, I’ve fallen and can’t get up.” Untunatately, as much as some comedians might make jokes about them, Medical Alert Systems save the lives of people every single day.
Modern medical alert systems work indoors and outdoors, connect with cellular phone systems, detect falls automatically, and have GPS systems in case you fall out at the park in the parking lot of a shopping centre.
They come in wrist bands and alerts that hang around the neck, and while there may be an expense from $20 to $40 per month, compared to lying in agony for hours waiting for help, are worth the money spent on them.
