Posts Tagged safety
Home Safety and Alzheimer’s Disease
When caring for an individual with Alzheimer’s disease at home, safety is an important concern. People living with Alzheimer’s can remain in their homes safely for a longer period of time if safety issues are addressed. Safety issues evolve as the disease progresses, so be sure to reevaluate safety periodically.
Tips for Home Safety
Accommodate for Visual Changes
- Use contrasting colors on walls, trim and floors to help the person anticipate staircases and room entrances. This technique is also effective in the bathroom, where a white toilet and sink may be hard to see against a white floor and wall
- Changes in levels of light can be disorienting. Try to maintain consistency in lighting the home and keep it well-lit
- Add extra lighting in entries, areas between rooms, stairways and bathrooms
- Diffuse glare by removing mirrors and glass-top furniture
- Cover windows with blinds, shades, or sheer draperies as needed to control and diffuse the light
- Use night lights
Avoid Injury during Daily Activities
- Lower the temperature of tap water and monitor food temperatures if possible, to prevent the person from accidentally getting burned
- Install walk-in showers, grab bars and non-skid decals on slippery surfaces
- Provide the appropriate level of support to the person when taking prescription and over-the-counter medications
Beware of Hazardous Objects and Substances
- Remove guns and ammunition from the home. Until guns and ammunition can be removed safely, lock them in a spot where the person with Alzheimer’s cannot access them. Never store weapons loaded.
- Limit the use of mixers, grills, knives, and lawnmowers
- Lock up hazardous materials that could be ingested
- Supervise smoking and alcohol consumption, and limit or eliminate their use when possible
- Move items that might cause a person to trip, such as unsecured throw rugs, floor lamps and coffee tables to create unrestricted areas for movement
- Clean out the refrigerator regularly, and discard expired food
Prepare for Emergencies
- Keep a list of emergency phone numbers and addresses by every phone, as well as a list of all prescriptions and dosages
- Regularly check fire extinguishers and smoke alarms
- Enroll the individual and caregivers in the Medic Alert + Safe Return program prior to any wandering incident. This helps protect the person with dementia, as well as ensuring that he or she will get needed care if something happens to a caregiver
- Consider using Comfort Zone to monitor the person’s whereabouts. Caregivers or other family or friends can receive computerized alerts when the person with Alzheimer’s wanders out of a pre-set range, or can be checked in on throughout the day
- As the disease progresses into the middle and late stages, take these steps to make dangerous places less accessible:
- Lock or disguise hazardous areas
- Install door locks out of sight, but only keep locked in this way when someone is home to help in case of an emergency
- Use safety devices, such as childproof locks and door knobs, or hide door knobs with a cloth or painted mural
Firearm Safety
Although the person with Alzheimer’s might have once been able to handle a gun, serious accidents can occur. The use of firearms requires complex mental skills that are usually lost in early dementia.
Statistics
- One half of all American homes have one or more firearms.
- Studies indicate that physically aggressive behavior has been found to occur in 30 to 50 percent of people with Alzheimer’s disease. The presence of firearms could contribute to the serious consequences of such behavior. Assault by persons with dementia can result in psychiatric hospitalization.
- Studies also found that in more than 60 percent of the homes where guns were present, family members reported that the guns were loaded or that they were unaware of their loaded status. This was despite dementia severity, severity of depression, or perceived incompetence of the person with dementia living in the household.
Suggested gun safety tips
- Although a person with Alzheimer’s might have once been able to handle a gun, serious accidents can occur. The use of firearms requires complex mental skills that are affected by dementia.
- Guns must be put in a safe place. The best course of action is to lock the gun in a cabinet or drawer, or remove the gun from the house. Don’t allow the patient unsupervised access to a gun.
- It is not sufficient just to unload guns and rifles or place a trigger lock on them.
- Even without a gun, ammunition is still dangerous if subjected to the right conditions: a fireplace, stove, furnace, oven, microwave oven, disposal, hammer, etc. Remove weapons and ammunition.
- Ask for outside assistance in talking with your loved one. If necessary, ask your doctor or clergy person to explain to the affected person’s hunting buddies that hunting is now too dangerous for him. Ask local police or sheriff’s department if they can help dispose of a gun or rifle if you do not know how to do so.
- As with all such issues, the person with dementia should be involved as much as possible in the decision to remove or lock-up a gun.
Possible scenarios
- Your family member accidentally happens upon an unloaded gun. He realizes that he should give it to you immediately. Off he goes looking for you, carrying the gun and walking down the corridor of your condominium or apartment complex. What would the neighbors think? What would the police do, maybe not realizing that your family member has Alzheimer’s disease?
- The same scenario could happen with knives or other weapon collections, even if they are far from the ammunition that would make them operable. Also consider toy guns that look real enough to be convincing, even to the police, or real pistols with locks that can still be picked up and carried.
alzheimersactivitiesPLUS 