Home Accident Prevention

AUGUST 2004

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Home Accident Prevention

Adapted from The Comfort of Home: An Illustrated Step-by-Step Guide for Caregivers, © 2004 CareTrust Publications. www.comfortofhome.com

Preventing Slip-Ups Is the home safe and convenient for you and the one in your care? Safety should be a major priority in adapting any home. Even in the best of circumstances, accidents do happen. Some accidents are preventable. Take an objective look at the home where you are providing care. Health care professionals or caregiver support resources in your community can give advice about implementing changes for safety.

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The Home Environment See how many safety measures you are already taking and also see if there are ways to prevent accidents from happening. A safe home will have the following: 1. Furniture that is arranged with plenty of space so a person using a walker or wheelchair can get around it easily. Furniture should be: • Secure with everyone knowing the location of rearranged items • With seats high enough (usually about 20") and

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with armrests to ease getting up and down. (If necessary, use wooden blocks or a platform to increase the height) • Protection on corners and sharp edges Glass doors and picture windows marked with decals or tape. Bright lighting and automatic night-lights—consider "clap-ons" and extra lights outside. Floors with carpeting that is tacked down. (Thin pile carpet is easiest to walk on and best for movable assist devices. If possible, avoid carpets with "busy" patterns, install non-skid flooring or use non-skid floor waxes. Non-fraying electrical and telephone cords secured to walls or run under carpets. Grab bars, no-slip strips and a shower seat in the bathroom.

Note If the person in your care is on life-support equipment, be sure there is a back-up electrical power system and that everyone knows the plan of action for a power outage.

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Continued from page 1 Accident Prevention Be sure stairs have: • Good lighting, with switches at the top and bottom of the stairs. • Even surfaces with no metal strips or rubber mats. • Reflective tape on the edges of steps (consider painting the edge of the first and last step a different color from the floor). • Durable railings in key places (a carpenter can insure that railings can bear a person's full weight and will not give way) • A reliable lift or a gate when necessary

Fire Safety 1. Be sure escape routes that are clear. 2. Keep a charged fire extinguisher handy, preferably in the kitchen area. 3. Smoke alarms should be on every floor and outside every bedroom.

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© 2004 CareTrust Publications

Note Post 911 on the phone or on speed-dial. Keep written instructions on how to get to the house. If you have a speakerphone, use the speaker when talking to the dispatcher, then you can follow the dispatcher’s instructions while attending to the emergency.

In an Emergency Emergency situations are common with the elderly because of their chronic illnesses and problems resulting from falls. When a crisis does occur, use common sense and stay calm.

When to Call for an Ambulance Call for an ambulance if a person— • Becomes unconscious • Has chest pain or pressure • Has trouble breathing • Has no pulse and no breathing • Is bleeding severely • Is vomiting blood or is bleeding from the rectum • Has fallen and may have broken bones • Has had a seizure • Has a severe headache and slurred speech • Has pressure or severe pain in the abdomen that does not go away OR • Moving the person could cause further injury • Traffic or distance would cause a life-threatening delay in getting to the hospital • The person is too heavy for you to lift or help

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Note If the person in your care has a signed Do Not Resuscitate (DNR) order, have it available to show the paramedics. Otherwise, they are required to initiate resuscitation. The order must go with the patient. The Do Not Resuscitate order must be with the patient at all times.

A Safer Home for Alzheimer’s Patients

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How would you manage this? Question: The person in my care does not seem to be aware of the importance of food safety in the kitchen. How can I gently tell him about safe food handling? Answer: Explain to him that even the Journal of the American Dietetic Association reports that foodborne diseases are estimated to cause 325,000 hospitalizations and 5,000 deaths in the U.S. each year. The elderly are especially vulnerable. To reduce risk of illness follow these tips: CLEAN—Wash hands in hot soapy water for at least 20 seconds before handling food and after handling raw meat and seafood. SEPARATE—Keep raw foods separate from cooked foods. COOK—Cook ground meat until no pink remains. CHILL—Cook raw meats and poultry within two days or freeze them. Refrigerate cooked foods and leftovers within two hours. Everyone should take extra precautions in the summer months to be safe from spoiled food. Source: Fight Bac! www.fightbac.org

Inspiration To be 70 years young is sometimes far more cheerful and hopeful than to be 40 years old. Oliver Wendell Holmes

© 2004 CareTrust Publications

A safe, comfortable environment can help a person with Alzheimer’s feel more relaxed and less overwhelmed. A few suggestions are: • Use childproof plugs in all electrical outlets. • Lock the cellar and garage doors. • Remove all poisonous and sharp household items. • Install safety latches or locks on the doors and exterior gates. Install alarms on the doors. • Cover or remove mirrors if they are upsetting to a person with hallucinations. • Store car keys in a locked container or disable the car. • Put wastebaskets out of sight. Otherwise, a person with Alzheimer’s may urinate in them. • Have no electrical cords dangling near the bathroom washbasin.

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Our Purpose To provide caregivers with critical information enabling them to do their job with confidence, pride and competence.

Ordering Info Caregiver Assistance Newsletter English and Spanish versions are published 12 times per year. Additional language versions are published quarterly. From the publishers of

An Illustrated Step-by-Step Guide for Caregivers available from… CareTrust Publications LLC PO Box 10283, Portland, OR 97296 800-565-1533 or www.comfortofhome.com Comments and suggestions welcome. ©2004 CareTrust Publications LLC. All rights reserved. Reproduction of any component of this publication is forbidden without a license from the publisher. Some content in this publication is excerpted from The Comfort of Home: An Illustrated Step-by-Step Guide for Caregivers. It is for informational use and not health advice. It is not meant to replace medical care but to supplement it. The publisher assumes no liability with respect to the accuracy, completeness or application of information presented or the reader’s misunderstanding of the text.

Taking Care of Yourself

Managing Anger

can . We can’t avoid them, but we life of rt pa al tur na a are s Conflict t you have lthy way. Think about a conflic hea a in m the e olv res to rn lea flict, be to resolve it? To resolve a con experienced. How did you try d e your expectations. Try to fin min exa d an ts fac the all ve sure you ha t: t. When discussing the conflic flic con the rlie de un t tha ns concer ✔ Express your concerns. to say. ✔ Listen to what others have er person’s motives. ✔ Don’t second-guess the oth under control. ✔ Try to keep your emotions cussed. ✔ Stick to the issue being dis wrong. ✔ Apologize if you were in the

NEXT ISSUE…HEART AND STROKE ISSUES

AUGUST 2004

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Q U I Z

After reading this issue think about how, while providing care and assistance, you can improve home safety by using some of the suggestions learned. Also, understand when to call an ambulance. Answer the questions below to reinforce learning. Circle T for True or F for False after each:

4. The best place to keep a fire extinguisher is in the bedroom. T F 5. Call an ambulance if a person has fallen and may have broken bones. T F 6. When caring for a person on life support, always know a backup plan in case of a power outage emergency. T F 7. Thick rugs are easiest to walk and roll a wheelchair on. T F 8. For safety, provide protective corners on sharp edges of furniture. T F 9. Wash hands for at least 20 seconds with hot soapy water before handling food. T F 10. If the person in your care has signed a Do Not Resuscitate (DNR) order, have it available to show paramedics. TF Name ________________________________________ © 2004 CareTrust Publications

Signature_____________________________________Date_________________________

Answers: 1. T 2. T 3. T 4.F 5.T 6.T 7.F 8. T 9. T 10. T

1. Some accidents are preventable with careful planning. T F 2. Important phone numbers should be posted near the phone along with instructions on how to get to the house. T F 3. Furniture should not be moved once the person in your care is used to the arrangement. T F