Creating a Safe Home Environment for a Senior Loved One

*The following is the output of transcribing from an audio recording. Although the transcription is largely accurate, in some cases it is incomplete or inaccurate due to inaudible passages or transcription errors.

The following podcast is provided by hospitality home care and answers for elders radio. And Welcome back to answers for elders radio everyone. I am here with Melanie Moss heart from hospitality home care. And Melanie, you’re on a telephone today, aren’t you? I’m so glad you were able to join us on the call. Yes, I am. Thank you so much for having me a greatly appreciate it. Well, we’re excited because you’re going to talk about a I think we’ve been wrapping up this month talking about adaptive living, which really means how can an environment for a senior loved one support them most often, and of course your organization really comes in and provides what we call non medical home care, which is really basically helping with daytoday things, what we call the activities of daily living, or ADLS. But you know you’re going to talk about a topic here is obviously you guys can’t be there seven in most cases, so creating an environment that supports a senior loved one obviously is really important, and you have some tips on how to make that happen, don’t you, yes, I do, and actually it’s pretty commensous that it thinks that we so often take for granted that really come to when you’re looking at adapting your home for a senior. It’s kind of like adapting your home for a try other tap. You really have to take into considerations so many assact yes, and you know you’re so right, because even though a senior is certainly not a toddler, there’s some fall risk higher. There’s some things that had you know, can be of concerned even by water temperature on their they don’t see as well as they used to when they were younger. So there’s a lot of things that obviously we can do that are just tempered, that are good fixes in their home that can help them reduce those risks exactly. So go ahead and tell us a little bit about let’s you know, you sent me some kind of some crib notes, and you’ve got seven really key items that I think are all really important. So let’s just talk about some of those. Okay. Well, I think first and foremost something that we should even think about for ourselves, because in our bathroom we all can help Bathman and the one of the things who is very important to seniors are having grab bars and the shower in the bathroom so that if they feel unstating, they have something to sad onto, yes, so that they don’t take that fold. That is crucial, you know, and and you say that because that is is so valuable. Of what you’re saying grab bars and what that does not mean the towel bar and it does not mean the the side of the TUB and it doesn’t necessarily mean the little towel, you know, the little holder in the shower surround. You know, it means really solid grab bars that are put into a stunt on the wall. And you know, you guys are professional, so you could go in and actually figure out the right spots to put the grab bar, you know, and and understanding how a senior moved and moves in different things like that. You guys can provide consultation to that, can’t you? Exactly. One of the other things, since we’re talking about bathroom, is is very difficult sometimes for seniors to so if you can raise the toilet seat higher than a normal toilet seat would be, and yes, some devices that are available that you can add to the toilet seat, they don’t have to fit so far down because which he’s going out. It makes a lot easier if they don’t have so far to sit well, and that’s that’s an important thing. You know. I know that there’s raised toilet seats out there that actually of two grab bars on either side, and sometimes that’s really helpful for a senior, depending on how you know how their bathroom is configurated, and you can pick those up a like Walmart. Can’t you? Absolutely Walmart move any of deeper. They all have those types of things. Yeah, that’s great. And then you know, obviously you know, I’ve heard that the bathroom is the most dangerous place in a house. You know, the shower is obviously a big thing, isn’t it? It really is. It is and you’ll find any assisted moving or don’t family whom what they’ve done even to minimize the risk, more so in the bathroom is to even have a very small loop or someone doesn’t have to stand to the showers with very in some we work about two inches or so so that there’s no big step over to get into the shower. As we’re right, right and and just trying to find if, if it all possible, if you’re doing a bathroom remodel, is make sure that you look up non slip tile or at the very least find something that you know you can stick down on the tile that there’s not a slipping as a as the seniors walking in, isn’t that right? That’s exactly a cue like and speaking of flipping and following followers, give pure amount in looking for dangers for seniors, because a very much highway and there’s a free work in the hallway. We could trip over that. One of the other things that we see quite function or cord. You know your Oh yeah, but you’ve got a singing on, you’ve got your TV, you’ve gotten whatever credic cord you have. Make sure they’re wrapped up in away from the middle of a fourth absolutely catching their foot on that, because that is so dangerous. Yes, and you know, I know that sometimes you have to have an extension card for certain things, let’s say your cable thing. Make sure that those cords are, you know, tied, you know, away or against the wall where they’re not impeding you know you have to step over it. I know. You know for myself, I look at my my house and here I have my laptop out on my my couch, and so what do I have to do is I have to run an extension cord out to the search protector, right, but make sure that what I’ve done in my house is I’ve taken that search protector and I’m just attached it directly to the leg of my couch so that that doesn’t slide out, so when I get in and out of the couch or whatever, I’m not tripping over that. Just little things like that that you can think about as mom or dad are getting up out of their chair, especially, you know if they are having challenges getting up like that, that can produced a fall. That’s true. And one of the other things that I think is a great idea. Most people actually have these, because people sometimes get up in there in the evening to go get a glass of water, go to the rest room, and another seemed to have a night light. Absolutely that is a good night light for a singer because of course their eyesight isn’t quite as good as it used to be, so good night light is very important so they can find the regular light to turn it on wind it, I think. So yeah, it’s a very good thing to have as well. So we are talking to Melanie Moss heart and Melanie, you are with hospitality home care. Tell us a little bit about what areas you serve in greater seattle. We primarily serve King County and Pierce County, but we are making arrangements to move into Thurston county as well. So we’re very busy, I can tell and can tell and you guys basically, what do people can people expect when they come and call you? Do you guys come out and visit with seniors? How do you work with seniors? What would they expect when they give you a call? That’s a great question and thank you, peop because what we do if we take information or with a phone about what is needed and if they decide to move forward to have us come out and do an assessment, then one of us will go out to the home. We will talk to the person that is ing the care or the family member or both. We just get a very good, clear idea of what they’re looking for, kind of get an idea about their personality and there will come back find the perfect caregiver that would fit with them and they will who will bring the caregiver out and introduce them to the family. Right that everybody’s on board and on the same page and feels good about that, and we always follow up to make sure that it is a good fit for everybody in that they’re very happy with our service. That’s wonderful. And, of course, Melanie, for you, I would imagine, you know, if somebody were to call you, they would need assistance and what we call the activities of daily living. What are some of those, you know, things that you can help seniors with? Well, a lot of times someone might be released from the hospital the Rehab Center, they’re not able to walk as with they’re not able to use their hands and arms as well. Sometimes they have joulder replacement or something. So what we do is that, basically living. We can help them with bathing, we can help them with toileting, with walking, we can make sure there’s someone standing by when they’re taking a shower or we can give sponge bath. We can also do the new preparation, do a little lighthouse keeping, and we can also do their laundry, because that can be an issue. Absolutely, we take care of our VAT burden. We take that off the client so that we can take care of that Abstagram, and you can also like transport them to doctor appointments and things like that. Is that correct? Absolutely, we should. Yeah, and you know, even sometimes I know that there’s a lot of families out there that mom or dad might be alone and lonely, and so don’t don’t discount the whole companion care piece. I think sometimes we kind of gloss over that, thinking that’s not important. And yet senior loneliness is a real epidemic here in this country and having somebody that they can look forward to, like you guys, that comes in, you know, two to three days a week, maybe more, maybe less, but they they get in something to look forward to and and be able to have a conversation with somebody that is a caring person, and I think that’s really, really valuable and and sometimes we overlook that. You know, it absolutely is valuable and it means so much because you use because you times they just want someone to talk to. Exactly. You take very good care in choosing the right character for them so that they can have conversation, so that they can talk about things in the world, whatever they wish to do or even have so much weak to them. It makes a world of different it really does, and I think that that’s something that, you know, to honor our seniors and honor the loved ones that we have in our family is such an important part of what the work is that we do. We try to do that in the on this show and I just want to make a very special thank you to you for all that you do, Melanie. So how do we reach you? Well, we can be reached either online at hospitality homecarecom or we can reach US seven at two hundred and six, nine hundred and sixty six, road zero. It’s very easy. Nine, nine six Ninezero. We’re happy to help in any way we can. Well, I’m really glad we had you on the program today. So thanks so much, Melanie. Thank you very very much today and really appreciate it. The preceding podcast was provided by Hospitality Home Care and answers for elders radio. To contact hospitality homecare, go to hospitality homecarecom.