I have been deeply involved with the elder care market in the past few years. After my grandmother fell down and broke her hip, we began looking at some very helpful products and ways to prevent these serious falls. During this time, I also began helping out at the local Family Bridges home care office in Cincinnati, Ohio so this made me become aware of the issues that our senior citizens have. Below are some of the much needed products that I think elders should have when living at home.
• Roll Around Walker– There are many different types of walkers, but if your elder has a lot of trouble moving around the house, these make things much easier because they have 4 wheels. Plus it has a basket which my grandmother regularly uses to store items such as her purse and cordless phone in case she need to contact someone conveniently.
• Uplifting Seats– This is something that we haven’t needed yet for our elder, but every few months she seems to be having a little more trouble than before. Currently we are looking at giving her either a chair or seat type lift. They can be helpful to prevent falls from the struggle they have with getting of the couch.
• Cushioned Bath Mats– We have been recommending non-slip type bath mats for a while, but these really caught my eye. Not only do these prevent slip & falls from happening, they also are padded so that if an elder does fall, the mat will absorb most of the impact.
• Rails & Gripping Handles- Elder Depot carries a few types of safety handles such as this handhold suction grip. These are great anywhere. A quick tip: be sure to observe where in the house the elder is showing any sign of struggle. Places to look for are areas with steps, bathrooms, and doorways.
Those are just some of the items that I think will be helpful to prevent serious accidents. Investing in a few of these items is worth preventing injuries that I have seen cost family 10’s of thousands of dollars. Plus you have the pain associated with that.
There are many other helpful items and it depends on the person’s needs so feel free leave a comment below to recommend a suggestion that you think should be added.