You are worried about the safety and comfort of your elderly loved one as they decide to live alone at the comforts of their home rather than in a care facility. While you cannot always be present to assist them, you can equip their home with items that are better suited to their needs.
Power Recliner
Many older adults suffer from mobility issues due to an illness, a side effect of the medication they are taking, or simply old age. For them, simple and everyday tasks become more challenging to accomplish.
Sometimes, even getting and out of a chair requires effort for the elderly. That is where power recliners come in handy. These seats may look like a typical couch, but they have something more to offer. With a click of a button, the chair rises to standing height to help a senior can easily step off without assistance. You can find stores selling power recliners in Utah.
Motion-Activated Light
Some accidents that occur at home involving a senior is caused by poor eyesight. Aside from making sure that every light inside and outside their home are not burned out, your elderly loved one might find motion-activated light fixtures useful.
Instead of fumbling in the dark and looking for the light switch, the motion-activated light will turn on automatically as soon as your loved one walks in a room. Place motion-activated light fixtures in strategic places like the kitchen and the bathroom — anywhere that your family member may go to in the middle of the night.
Stair Lift
Ideally, your senior loved one’s living space only has one floor and no stairs. However, if they insist to stay in your childhood home and sleep in their second-floor bedroom, you need to consider installing a stairlift.
A stairlift will remove the need to take the stairs. Instead, they sit on the chair provided and, with a push of a button, be hoisted to the second floor. If they need to go down, they take a seat and then descend. It is a helpful addition to the home of a senior who has mobility issues. Moreover, it significantly decreases the likelihood of injuries due to falls.
Smart Pillbox
Seniors often have to follow a strict regimen that involves taking a cocktail of different medications to address an illness. To make sure that your elderly loved one is taking the right medication consistently at the right time every day, you can give them a smart pillbox. A smart pillbox will send them a notification if it is time to take their medication. It will also send alerts to designated phone numbers if it senses that the senior has mistakenly taken the wrong pill or they failed to take their medication.
Voice Assistants
Amazon’s Alexa can offer convenience for seniors who are living at home. While many older adults are afraid of using technology that they do not understand, voice assistants are typically easier to use. It is activated by saying a phrase (the voice assistant’s name) and follow verbal commands.
A voice assistant can be programmed to turn the lights on or off and adjust the thermostat to a more desirable temperature. In case of an emergency, the senior can ask the voice assistant to place a call and seek help.
The comfort and safety of a senior loved one is always the priority. Ask an elderly family member if they experience any difficulty so that you can address it and avoid any problems in the future.
