Falling is something that can be incredibly damaging for your aging adult. There are some steps that you can take as her caregiver that can help her to maintain her mobility and hopefully to avoid a fall.
Identify Hazards and Get Rid of as Many as Possible
Go through your senior’s home with an objective eye and look for anything that might potentially cause her to fall. Installing hand rails can help immensely, as can removing carpet or rugs which are damaged or that slip. Move all cords and wires out of the path of traffic. If you’re not sure what else could be a tripping hazard, ask someone else to walk through with you.
Talk to Your Senior’s Doctor
Your senior’s doctor is an excellent source of assistance for you and your elderly family member during this process. Ask about how much risk your senior faces in terms of falling and what your senior can do to lower her risk. Make sure that you also ask about medications that she takes and what side effects could contribute to your senior falling.
Encourage Your Senior to Keep Moving
If exercise is something that your elderly family member’s doctor recommends for her, start out slowly and encourage her to keep moving. Even if exercise isn’t on the list of solutions your senior’s doctor recommends, it’s important that she doesn’t just curl up and stay in bed. As your senior gives up on certain levels of movement, it becomes that much more difficult for her to continue to move.
Help Her to Learn How to Use Assistive Devices
Assistive devices can be absolutely the right tool for your elderly family member but if she’s stubborn or doesn’t want to use something that makes her feel old, you may have an uphill battle. If she’s using her cane or her walker properly, this tool can help your elderly family member to continue to be able to move for a long time and that’s important. Her doctor can help her to learn how to use the cane or the walker properly if she continues to have trouble.
Just being there for your elderly family member is important as her caregiver, but there’s more that you can do to help her to prevent a fall. Try some of these ideas and look for other ways to help her to be and to feel as safe as possible as she moves through her daily life.
If you or an aging loved one are considering caregivers in Cherry Hills, CO, please contact the caring staff at SYNERGY HomeCare Denver. Call today: (303) 756-9322.
