Keeping your home safe for you, your family, and for guests who come over is an important aspect of living there. What about when it’s someone else’s home? What about when you have an elderly loved one whose home might not be as safe and secure as it could be, or as it should be? Should you take on the responsibility for senior home safety yourself? This is a question that goes beyond the do it yourself generation, or that mentality. Sure, you may have a lot of experience working around the house. You may have built your own entertainment center, your own bedroom furniture, and you may have even built your own room in the basement. So while you have that level of carpentry experience, how would that relate to senior home safety?
It might have some bearing on your ability to ensure that certain aspects of your loved one’s home are safe, such as installing grab bars properly in the bathroom. One of the most common mistakes that people make when it comes to safety in the home for seniors, when they install grab bars, is that they don’t secure then to the wall studs properly. They assume that they can be installed in much the same way that a towel bar rack would.
However, that will only lead to the grab bars being pulled free of the wall in the event that they are needed, such as if your elderly loved one slips in the shower or tub and begins to fall.
What about other safety considerations, such as wheelchair ramps? You might think that these are fairly straightforward and simple: it’s just a ramp that you have to build to reach the door through which the individual will go. Yet there are many aspects to these ramps that you would need to know in order to not only allow your loved one to be safe, but also to meet the town or city code.
If you don’t follow the proper codes when you’re installing different items for your loved one, then not only do you put them at risk for even greater injury, but you could also make it so that their insurance doesn’t cover injuries or liabilities. If you want to ensure that your loved one is safe within their home, make sure that you understand every aspect of the senior home safety device or technique that will be installed. If you don’t understand it or don’t honestly think you can do it yourself best, then hire a professional, experienced contractor instead. Safety should always come first.
