“ Watching Your Step: Avoiding And Dealing With Falls Whilst Caring For The Elderly”
Senior Living & Home Care Tips for falls in the elderly

Senior Living tips for falls in the elderly Happiness and wellbeing self help books and senior citizen services. Watching Your Step: Avoiding And Dealing With Falls Whilst Caring For The Elderly senior care guide with caregiver senior home care and falls in the elderly senior citizen retirement activity including some caring for elderly parent resources.

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Anyone that has even a tiny amount of experience in caring for the elderly will be able to alert you to the pitfalls and hazards of the job as primary caregiver.

One of the first things that any of these individuals will mention to you that relate directly to your role is the constant danger of falls.

The elderly, as a collective, have an astonishing number of falls every year. This can be attributed to a variety of factors but is primarily a result of feeling and being unstable on their feet. As elderly bones are more brittle that those of younger generations then they can easily be broken.

Dislocated and fractured hips are the bone break of choice for most elderly individuals and can be extremely painful and debilitating. As a result, you need to be aware of the hazard and prevent it before it happens.

As prevention is better than cure when it comes to elderly falls and resultant hospital trips, it may be wise to put preventative measure in place to head off falls before they occur. Maintaining the safety and security of an elderly individual can be very difficult initially because you do not have eyes in the back of your head.

The first thing that you should do to prevent trips and falls actually has nothing to do with the elderly individual in general terms. You should remove all possible tripping hazards in their home.

Everything from rugs and loose carpeting to small objects that are used to decorate a room should be removed. They can all be hazardous in the right situation, or wrong situation as the case may be! You should also look into effective methods of controlling falls. Zimmer frames are extremely effective for those unsteady on their feet and cot sides can be attached to a bed to prevent falls during the night.

If the elderly individual that you look after does experience a fall in the home, then it is of the utmost importance that you know exactly how to deal with the situation. Firstly, you need to remove all hazards from around the individual to allow you to get closer and assess the damage. You must then administer first aid if it is appropriate to do so. Just keep your relative warm and as comfortable as possible until the paramedics arrive.

Falls represent very real hazards in the home and you must always be prepared to deal with them. You will inevitably have to deal with them at some stage, no matter how well prepared you are, but removing the means will reduce the amount of falls and hopefully lower the severity of the injuries.

Your First Priority: Maintaining The Safety Of Seniors In Your Care

Looking after the elderly can be a bit like looking after young and curious children – you need eyes in the back of your head and the ability to see through walls! Whether the elderly person that you are caring for is mentally or physically disabled, your primary concern is their safety.

However, unfortunately for you, this is very rarely their primary concern. Individuals with dementia or Alzheimer’s Disease, for example, do not have a sense of their own mortality at all.

They are mentally incapable of thinking through the dangers of any situation and are neither logical nor reasonable with their thoughts. As a result, you must be concerned about their safety enough for you and them at all times.

Within the home, you should make all of the necessary amenities available to the senior in your care without exposing them to any danger. It is much like baby proofing a room when you have a toddler walking around.

The elderly person that you look after may also be into everything if they are mentally handicapped. People in the latter stages of dementia may wander continuously and refuse point blank to sit down. In the event of this occurring, you should remove all tripping hazards such as mats and small units that they could trip over.

You should also avoid having any open heating devices such as electrical fires because these can cause more trouble and destruction than they are worth. If a person is physically disabled, then you should allow them to rest in the most appropriate spot in the room, granting them access to their source of entertainment as well as warmth.

However, you should not cut them off from any source of communication because if they need you and are unable to reach you then they may attempt physical feats that are beyond their abilities. This could cause falls.

You must also ensure that they are safe within their chair or bed, having the appropriate rests either side of them to prevent slipping and falls.

Take every step slowly and do not hurry anyone with a disability. It may cause them to panic and fall, or cause a scene. Always make sure that they are warmly dressed if it is winter and have layers on if it is summer and always attempt to comply with their wishes.

If a physically disabled senior does not think that he or she can handle the activity that you propose then you will more than likely be informed of that fact. Communication is that key. If your senior cannot tell you whether they feel safe or not, you should be able to identify any signs of distress or fear effectively.

If you can get to the point where you can achieve that, then you should feel confident in your role as guardian and protector of their safety. Maintaining the safety of an elderly person in your care is a 24-hour job and you should always take it seriously.

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Senior Living tips for falls in the elderly Happiness and wellbeing self help books and senior citizen services, falls in the elderly senior care guide with senior home care and Watching Your Step: Avoiding And Dealing With Falls Whilst Caring For The Elderly resources. Senior Citizen living guide using falls in the elderly self help resources.

Safety First: How To Stay Safe In Your Senior Years

A simple trip over an object that has been left lying around can jar and individual’s back, rendering him or her unable to move properly for anything up to a month, even if they are able bodied and in the peak of health. This risk is more pronounced in seniors than in any other age group because the body’s ability to heal itself decreases with age.

As a result, healing times are longer and it always possible that a full recovery will never be made. Of course, that is the effect of an accident at its most extreme level. Trips, slips and falls are the most common accidents that occur in the home, and are also the most common cause of injuries that happen to seniors in general.

Some may be innocuous and only cause bruising, but others can cause jarring of joints, the stiffening of muscles and even the dislocation of joints and breaking of bones. The latter have the potential to stop a senior in his or her tracks and cause disability, either on a temporary or permanent basis. Being aware of hazards is the only way to prevent this because they cut the potential for trips, slips and falls off at the source.

You can build up an awareness of hazards but you do not naturally notice them. Having said that, if you are paranoid about having accidents in the home then it will only serve to make you mentally ill. It is all about getting the right balance of the two – being healthily vigilant without allowing paranoia to affect your entire being.

The most common hazards that cause trips, slips and falls are loose coverings, such as carpets and rugs, and objects that are just left lying around or are inconveniently placed. It is simple enough to put measures into place to prevent these hazards from occurring in the first place.

Replace or tighten any loose fittings and then check them again after a couple of weeks to make sure that they are still firmly in place. Any rugs should be removed at the earliest opportunity, or placed somewhere in the room that is very rarely used so they are just there for decorative effect.

When you are checking you home for hazards for the first time, it may be necessary to have a furniture move. Rearrange your entire living room, bedroom and any other commonly used rooms in the house to make sure that everything is well placed.

Nothing should be even partially blocking entrances and smaller items of furniture should be placed in a location that isolates them from any physical activity. If you consider the layout of your house, then all of these suggestions make sense.

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