OUTSIDE YOUR HOME
Make sure that the walkways and paths to your front door or building are smooth and level. Keep them clear of clutter. Store bins and other bulky objects away off the main pathways and approaches. Similarly, make sure that plans in your garden are not encroaching onto your pathways or narrowing them. If lighting is poor, install motion-sensitive outdoor lighting. Steps should have a hand-rail running alongside them.
Employ a gardener to or ask your friends, family and carers to help you keep fallen leaves off pathways. Get stone flags and flat-smooth surfaces cleaned regularly, so they don’t become slippery. Avoid gardening and DIY jobs that put you at risk of falling – especially jobs that involve ladders, step-ladder and reaching high above your head.
INSIDE YOUR HOME
Keep your home clutter free. Avoid storing items on the floor. Ask yourself if you can touch the walls on all passageways without reaching over boxes or other clutter.
Keep you floor coverings well maintained. Carpets should be firmly fastened down, without holes or fraying. Rugs can be attractive to look at, but they are a serious trip hazard. Mats in bathrooms and on other smooth floors should have an anti-slip base. The safest floors are covered by one material for the full width.
Clean up any spillages in kitchens and bathrooms. Wash these floors regularly to remove potentially slippery substances.
Remove other trip hazards, such as trailing wires from appliances.
Make you home convenient – store this things you use regularly in places where you don’t have to stretch, lean or climb to access them. Don’t stand on chairs to reach for things. Use a proper stepladder and ask someone to help you.
Footwear and clothing can also be a falls risk. Wear properly fitting shoes or slippers. Open back or slip-on footwear should be avoided.
At Bluebird Care, we believe that stating in your own home is what most people prefer to do in later life. Employing a home care company like Bluebird helps you to make you home a safer environment. Having help with your personal care, cleaning, meal-preparation and day-to-day tasks, not only helps you to stay in the home you love, but also helps to make that familiar environment safer. Home care can also help you to get up in the morning and go to bed in the evening, two situations where fall risks are higher than normal.
Live-in and night-care options are also available from Bluebird Care.
Remember, there are many simple aids or home adaptations that could help you avoid falls, like grab rails in the bathroom, extra banister rails, stair lifts and powered armchairs that rise to help you in and out of a seated position.
Bluebird Care Calderdale
We provide Home Care, Night Care, Live-in Care and a range of other support in the Calderdale area, including Halifax, Sowerby Bridge, Brighouse, Elland, Hebden Bridge and Todmorden.
