Many falls in the home happen at night in a senior’s bedroom. Seniors who are already tired, half asleep, or possibly groggy from sleep medication who get up because they heard a noise, need to use the bathroom, or need to answer the phone, will have a greater chance of falling. But there are some things that you and your senior care provider can do to make your senior loved one’s bedroom a little safer and less likely to cause them to fall. According to senior home care experts, some ways to make the bedroom safe for seniors include:
Put A Phone Next To The Bed
It may seem like no one uses landlines anymore, but seniors should have access to a landline by their bed in case of emergencies. Seniors might misplace their cell phones, leave them off the charger and let the battery die, or drop them in the middle of the night when they need help. Have a landline installed in your senior parent’s home if there isn’t one and place an old-fashioned phone by your senior parent’s bed where they can easily reach it.
Put In Some Low Lights
Seniors may fall in the dark when they get out of bed, or they may fall if they turn on a bedside lamp that is too bright. Low lighting eliminates both of those risks. Small LED lights can be installed easily around the bottom of the wall near the floor all the way around the room to provide enough light that your senior loved ones will be able to see where they need to go without the light being so bright it blinds them. You can also install a motion-activated light near the bathroom that will turn on automatically so that your senior loved one has enough light to see their way to the bathroom.
Install Wall To Wall Carpet
Area rugs are a major safety hazard for seniors, but bare floors in the bedroom are not very pleasant. And bare floors can cause injuries if seniors fall on them. A better option is to have a thick padded wall-to-wall carpet installed in the bedroom. Wall-to-wall carpet will provide an even surface for your senior loved one to walk on while also making the floor softer to walk on and less likely to cause a serious injury if your senior loved one falls. b
Put A Grab Bar By The Bed
Senior home care experts often suggest putting a grab rail or grab bar by your senior loved one’s bed even if they don’t usually use one. Sometimes seniors have trouble getting in and out of bed and a grab rail can make the process of transferring to bed and out of bed much easier. Grab bars are easy to install and provide a little extra measure of safety that could someday be necessary to make sure that your senior loved one doesn’t fall while they are trying to get in or out of bed.
If you or an aging loved-one are considering hiring Senior Care in Lake Oswego, OR, please contact the caring staff at Integrity In-Home Care. Call today at (503) 660-3755
