{"id":1280,"date":"2017-06-27T04:36:02","date_gmt":"2017-06-27T04:36:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.firstlighthomecare.com\/home-healthcare-olympia\/?p=1280"},"modified":"2017-06-27T04:36:02","modified_gmt":"2017-06-27T04:36:02","slug":"keep-aging-parents-home-safe","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.firstlighthomecare.com\/home-healthcare-olympia\/2017\/06\/27\/keep-aging-parents-home-safe\/","title":{"rendered":"How to Keep Your Aging Parents’ Home Safe"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"June is National Safety Month<\/a>, a good reminder, if your aging parents are living independently at home or a senior living facility, of how important it is to\u00a0keep them safe.<\/p>\n

FirstLight Home Care \u2013 South Sound<\/a> compiled this short\u00a0list of home safety tips that will help you protect\u00a0your aging parents\u00a0from\u00a0falls and accidents in their home:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Start with the exterior of your parents\u2019 home.\u00a0<\/strong>Walk around home to check out the condition of sidewalks, handrails, lighting and vegetation or shrubs. Uneven sidewalks, loose handrails, poor lighting and overgrown landscaping could become a trip hazard. Move and put away outdoor furniture, flower pots, and gardening tools that could obstruct their pathway.<\/li>\n
  2. Secure all points of entry.<\/strong> Inspect all windows and doors for weak or faulty locking mechanisms. Make sure your parents know how to work the locks properly. In warmer weather, secure window air conditioning units with a metal bracket, sliding window locks or steel corner braces to prevent them from being pushed into or pulled out of the home. Make sure your parents are locking all windows and doors and that they are not leaving a back door unlocked or a window open when they\u2019re not at home, home alone, or at night before they go to bed.<\/li>\n
  3. Check exterior lighting on their property.<\/strong> The front porch lights should be strong enough to illuminate the entrance and front yard. Other lighting around the exterior \u2013 near the garage, backdoor or alley, should also be lit. Motion sensor to exterior lights can be helpful because they don\u2019t require your parents to remember to turn on or off.<\/li>\n
  4. Move inside and check around the home.<\/strong> This is the place your aging parents will spend the most of their time. It is important to check the ease and accessibility to all rooms in their home. Make sure furniture is not obstructing walkways. Remove throw rugs to avoid tripping. Re-position floor lamps so that they don\u2019t trip on their cords. Purchase nightlights and place them throughout the house in case they get up at night. Clear away all things from the floor \u2013 pet toys and bedding, stacks of newspapers or magazines. Make sure stairs have handrails on both sides of the star and that the end of the stairs is clearly marked (top and bottom). Check for smoke and carbon-monoxide detectors are working.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    Once you have assessed the exterior and interior of the home, fixed or replaced all issues, it\u2019s now time to talk to your parents about home safety. Walk them through the changes that have been made, discuss their needs and concerns about their safety while living independently, and continue to modify and discuss their needs as time goes on.<\/p>\n

    Not sure how to start the conversation? Contact us at FirstLight Home Care in Olympia<\/a> and we can help get you started.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    June is National Safety Month, a good reminder, if your aging parents are living independently at home or a senior living facility, of how important it is to\u00a0keep them safe. FirstLight Home Care \u2013 South Sound compiled this short\u00a0list of home safety tips that will help you protect\u00a0your aging parents\u00a0from\u00a0falls…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":151,"featured_media":1281,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1280","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-safety"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.firstlighthomecare.com\/home-healthcare-olympia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1280","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.firstlighthomecare.com\/home-healthcare-olympia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.firstlighthomecare.com\/home-healthcare-olympia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.firstlighthomecare.com\/home-healthcare-olympia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/151"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.firstlighthomecare.com\/home-healthcare-olympia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1280"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.firstlighthomecare.com\/home-healthcare-olympia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1280\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.firstlighthomecare.com\/home-healthcare-olympia\/wp-json\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.firstlighthomecare.com\/home-healthcare-olympia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1280"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.firstlighthomecare.com\/home-healthcare-olympia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1280"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.firstlighthomecare.com\/home-healthcare-olympia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1280"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}