How to Do Slip and Fall Prevention In Your Elder Home Care Business

Being a caregiver is a very important job, take it seriously.

Things You Will Need:

• Lots of paience
• Listening ear
• Watchful eye

1. First rule of thumb is to scope out the situation in your elder home care. They are trying to avoid  the nursing home at all cost. So while you are doing home care learn to listen and keep a watchful eye. Slipping and falling comes with getting older.

2. Does your home care client or elder you care for walk with a cane or walker? Some times they have more than one way to get around depending on what they are doing. I've known elders to have a walking stick, a 3 legged cane, a push walker and a scooter to ride on. Check it out, does the bathroom have room for the scooter? Is the bathroom laid out to where they need a walker or cane instead? Take up all throw rugs. They are a hazard just waiting to happen. It's to easy to slip, fall and hit their heads.  Also have plenty of handrails designed to hold the bodies weight. Getting in and out of the shower is a tripping or slip and fall situation.

3. In the kitchen have textured linoleum instead of carpet. It's easier to clean up and help tripping and falling. Trust me there will be messes to clean up.

4. The living room and bedrooms can be carpeted but it should be very low pile. The higher the carpet the harder it is for the elderly person to walk. Again no throw rugs. Tripping on throw rugs is an  easy thing to do for all of us but with the elderly it's easier and even more dangerous. Also in the bedroom the comforters or bedspread need to fit the bed properly and not reach the floor. They are to easy to slip and fall over when to long.

5. I had a client in the past and for lack of a better term, he was a slob. He was being threatened eviction from the senior apartment he was living in.  It's a wonder he didn't fall a lot sooner than he did. You need to remove clutter! Throw things away and put them away to avoid slip and fall situations. Get extension cords off the floor. If you have to have additional electrical outlets get a surge protector and keep it behind furniture and out of the walking path. It really would be best if you would  hire an electrician to install more outlets to void the whole problem.

6. Following just these few steps will reduce the chance for a fall. After all you are caring for the elderly and you want to do the best you can.

Tips:I had clients that had non skid throw rugs in front of their chairs and sofa in the living room. They had an accident in the bathroom and had to call 911.  911 responders told them to take the throw rugs and throw them away.