The bathroom takes a lot of flack in the world of senior safety – and rightly so. This very blog has regularly called out the bathroom as a location in the home where many slips and falls take place. When you add the constant presence of water to the slippery surfaces bathrooms are known for, it’s no wonder that so many injuries take place within their walls. This is especially true for senior citizens.
This isn’t to say, of course, that the bathroom is the only room where slips and falls occur. Seniors have been known to injure themselves in their bedrooms as well. Make no mistake that to adequately safeguard your elderly loved ones from harm, it’s important to not neglect any room of the home. When you consider the fact that most of us spend tons of time in our bedrooms – we do sleep in there, after all! – it is wise to take steps to making bedrooms safe.
But how do you make a bedroom senior safe?
Adjust the height of the bed.
A bed – which, naturally, is the main piece of furniture in any bedroom – needs to be adjusted to assist its elderly user with getting in and out of it. Ensuring an ideal height for the senior in your home will help to make the bed a safe zone.
“Your bed should not be too high or too low,” warns Kayla Anzalone of Alert1,”You should not have to climb to get into bed, nor should it be so low you fall into it while sitting down. Adjust it to a height where you can easily sit down and get up from the mattress.”
Place an easy to reach phone by the bed.
If your elderly loved one is not equipped with a cell phone, make sure a telephone is plugged in right beside his/her bed. In the event of an emergency, you want to ensure that the older adult in your home can call for help. According to SmartCells USA, “experts recommend locating the phone close to the bed and using a corded phone set up. It is also in good practice to have a spare phone battery close to the bed, in case the power goes out.”
Install grab bars and handrails.
Grab bars aren’t exclusive to bathrooms. While these accessibility devices are widely used to assist seniors with getting in and out of bathtubs and on and off of toilets, they are also very handy in the bedroom. As Anzalone explains, grab bars give elderly individuals something to hold on to for balance when moving around the bedroom and getting into bed. Placing handrails by the bed’s sides also ensures a safe night’s sleep – every night.
Handrails “can prevent falling out of your bed while you are sleeping,” informs Anzalone, “They also give you something to hold on to while sitting up and getting out of bed. These should be chosen over grab bars when you need more support sitting up within the bed.”
At Advantage Home Health Solutions, we proudly offer a number of bedroom modifications including grab bars, bed rails and M-rails. For more information about how we can help to make your bedrooms safer, please don’t hesitate to give us a call at 403-460-5438. You may also email us by filling out the form on our Contact page!
