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Senior Moments: Home safe home

Author Marymae Henley
By: 
Marymae Henley, Gerontologist and member, Senior Ministries Board

Lights! Camera! Action: We see a lovely bedroom, well furnished with a cozy bed and sheepskin bedside rug, low lighting, and stacks of books around the room. A pitcher of water sits within reach on the bedside table, covered with knickknacks. Our lead actor sits up and swings his feet over the edge of the bed, taking the cozy blanket with him. He pulls it up around his shoulders, letting his feet slide to the floor. And slide they do!

They get tangled in the blanket, forcing his knees to buckle as his feet reach the ground. As he tries to stand he steps on a magazine and his feet slide. He's going down. He reaches for the edge of the night table to catch his fall, but a book is there. As he puts his weight on his outstretched hand the book slides off knocking the pitcher of water down as well. Thud. Splat. He lands on the rug, drenched by the pitcher which now lies broken all around him. Uh oh. Let's hope only his pride is injured and not his hip, legs, etc.

According to reports from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, one out of every three seniors falls each year, and as many as 30% of those falls result in serious injury. That’s an unnecessarily high number of falls and injuries, as many falls can be prevented.

Lights: Visibility!

Anyone over 40 knows vision changes as we age. We joke about friends and family who hold the paper ever farther from their eyes, trying to get it in focus. Then one day we notice our arms are hardly long enough. And then there is lighting. As kids we could read in the dark, ignoring our parents’ requests to turn on a light. What used to be great ambiance as they turned down the lighting at our favorite restaurant now makes us consider arriving earlier so we can read the menu and place our order before we cannot see it clearly. As we age, our eyes need more light, three to four times as much as they once did. And that’s normal aging, without cataracts, diabetic retinopathy, or other visual impairments. In our scenario, if the gentleman had turned his lamp on, he might have seen what he was doing and stayed safe.

Camera: Vigilance!

We all forget to declutter sometimes. If only our lead actor had kept his bedside table and floor clear of junk! As my aunt used to say, “Be vigilant!” But what does that mean? How can we stay attentive and safe?

Clutter: We don’t know what to do with it. There now exists an entire industry geared to help us organize our desks, our closets, our lockers, our kitchens, and our garages. Organization helps, but perhaps we just have too much stuff. Perhaps we would give things away if we knew of worthy recipients and a place we could donate. Holy Trinity Thrift Store in West Orange is the place for me. Many parish thrift stores are delighted to receive clean and fully functioning items that can be sold or given to the many shoppers who cross their threshold, and funds in turn go back to other ministries. For other items, the internet will help identify nonprofits which will pick up your furniture, vehicles, or a sundry of items without any charge, and provide you with a donor letter for tax purposes (internet search: donation pickup NJ, or, the specific type of donation). Consignment shops and eBay are additional methods to dispose of valuable items, involving more time but some financial reward. The result is the same: your home is decluttered, and your extra items find new homes.

A good percentage of us probably have a stack of books by our bedside. Night time reading is such a treat, and so relaxing. The truth is, however, that no matter how hard we try we can only read one book at a time. Let’s put those other books on a shelf. And with regard to magazines, they just cannot go on the floor. If they were in our kids’ rooms, we’d tell them to pick up the clutter; advice we should adhere to ourselves. And about that night table….lamp, check…cup of water set back from the edge, check…clock, check…phone, check…pad of paper and pencil for late night inspirations, great to have especially in a drawer so that the pencil does not roll away. There is a reason so many of us love to stay in a nice hotel…it’s spotless and free of clutter.

On to rugs: Rugs are always a trip hazard. While wall to wall carpeting is affixed to the floor and has no edges to trip on, rugs have lots of edges just waiting to roll up, fray, and catch our feet. They also move when we least expect it. By the bedside or the front door, and especially in the bathroom or on any tile floor, throw rugs are just waiting for an opportunity to give us a ride. Many of us know of someone who tripped on a rug and it never ends well.

Wires: For our infants, we learn to put outlet covers on all of our electrical outlets below counter level. For those of us beyond the toddler years, we need to minimize our use of extension cords that snake across rooms and doorways, under and around furniture, and sometimes under a throw rug. There are two issues here: trip hazards and fire hazards. As anyone who lives in public housing knows, no extension cords are allowed. Alas, you say, how could I survive? Surge protectors are the way to go, providing added safety to our precious electronics in the event of a power surge, and minimizing the wires so dangerously strewn across walking paths. Wires are a serious trip hazard. Wires can also become frayed, increasing the risk of fires. Overloading outlets also increases the risk of electrical fires. For your safety’s sake, check your wires, replace frayed wires, and use surge protectors rather than extension cords.

We’ve all heard that the majority of accidents at home happen in the bathroom. This is no surprise considering the wet floors, vanities with sharp corners, lots of small bottles waiting to spill, bath mats waiting to slide, long robes with longer sashes ready to trip us, etc.. Please, put a non-slip mat or adhesive decals onto the floor of your tub. Next, consider if a grab bar could be a functional addition to improve safety.

Action: Practical Solutions!

How can we put all we “know” into action? First, you can review one of the many safety checklists to see how you do now, and what you need to improve on. If you have young kids, consider Safe Kids Worldwide’s recommendations. If you are interested in safety for the post-child household, consider the checklist made possible by a collaboration between NJIT and the State of New Jersey. A second list for households which include a person with dementia is also available. If you are concerned about someone who is alone much of the time, consider the peace of mind and ability to summon help provided by a Personal Emergency Response System (PERS). These devices are worn by the individual, and summon help at the push of a button, or sometimes automatically by sensing a fall. A Consumers’ Reports guide provides a current comparison. Additional assistance in evaluating the safety of a home, or identifying specific methods or products to increase safety can be provided by an occupational therapist, geriatric care manager, geriatric social worker, or rehabilitation team.

Finally, know thy neighbors. If you know them and they know you, you have some new friends and increase the likelihood of someone noticing unusual occurrences at your home. You also have someone to grab your paper or Amazon delivery, left outside your door when you are away, thus decreasing the chance that a ne’er-do-well will identify your home as vacated.

We buy insurance to protect ourselves and our loved ones, so let’s also take action to demonstrate our care for the safety of ourselves and our loved ones. Let’s keep our homes, safe homes.

Resources:

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. http://www.cdc.gov/homeandrecreationalsafety/falls/adultfalls.html

SafeKids Worldwide. safekids.org/sites/default/files/documents/home-safety-tips-2015.pdf

Richard V. Olsen, Ph.D., and B. Lynn Hutchings, M. Arch., Health & Aging Division, Center for Architecture and Building Science Research (CABSR), New Jersey Institute of Technology, in collaboration with the New Jersey Department of Health and Senior Services, Division of Aging and Community Services. adrcnj.org/Portals/_AgencySite/docs/checklist.pdf

Consumer reports. http://www.consumerreports.org/cro/2014/06/what-to-look-for-in-a-medical-alert-system/index.htm