Welcome to my series on practical ways to help the elderly. You can read the introduction here.
This is the 5th article in the series of ways to help the elderly live better.
Whether your loved on lives on their own, with family, or in a Senior Citizens Home, you need to make sure their environment is as safe as possible. In this post I am going to talk about falls.
The elderly are more prone to falls due to:
- Vision problems
- Getting up too quickly, or after a hot shower, they may feel dizzy and unstable
- Poor lighting in a room
- Tripping over objects that shouldn’t be there.
- Trying to lift heavy objects.
- Falling over their pets.
- Their leg muscles become weaker and they stumble and can’t avoid falling.
- They may lose feeling in their feet due to neuropathy. This is often a consequence of diabetes.
How can you create a safer environment in the home?
- Remove loose carpets and mats and ensure floors, especially in the kitchen and bathroom are not slippery.
- Clean up spills immediately.
- Remove clutter
- Encourage the use of a walker or walking stick even if they are only walking between 2 rooms.
- Put brightly coloured collars on pets.
- Improve the lighting in passage ways, bathrooms and kitchens
- Install grab rails in the shower and if required a shower chair. Use non-slip mats in and outside the shower.
Panic alarms
It is always difficult to know where to situate the panic alarm. Do you put it next to the shower or next to the loo? Or what about the kitchen or at the front door? 
Some care facilities have buttons on the wall in several different places. The best ones I have seen are on a longish cord so you can reach them if you are lying on the floor, sitting or standing.
Who will respond to the alarm especially if they are not in an assisted care facility? Will the security company respond? Who will have access to the property and to the house?
Where we live, we have one panic button on a chain that we can put around our neck. Who gets to wear it? Luckily being 2 of us, one of us should be able to raise the alarm in the event of an emergency.
What to do if someone does fall and you are first on the scene?
If an elderly person falls do not rush to pull them up. They will probably feel confused and if they have hit their head on something there is the possibility of concussion. They may have broken a bone and making them get up could do more damage. If you are in any doubt and you are not medically trained, call emergency services or a doctor or nurse who is trained to examine the patient. It might seem like being over cautious but the elderly heal more slowly.
The patient needs to feel sufficiently stable to slowly get themselves into a position where they are comfortable to try getting up. What I have found works when Dave falls, (he is a big man) I put a stable chair next to him that he can hold onto and gradually get onto his knees and then slowly stand.
If they can’t get up on their own, call for help. Better safe than sorry.
If you do need to call for an ambulance and you do not know the patient well, it is advisable to find out if they have medical aid and if their policy will cover the cost of a private ambulance. If not, you need to call for a state ambulance.
As an extra note, if someone only has a hospital plan and not full medical aid, cover is usually only provided for tests and xrays etc if they are admitted to the hospital.
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