How Home Care Can Help Prevent Falls this Fall

You may be wondering how to help keep your senior loved one safe living in their home.

You can’t be there all of the time. While often they are safe on their own, you fear that they might fall at any moment, and you won’t be there to help them. That is where home care can help.

Many home care agencies have professionals on staff trained in fall prevention. Not only are they there to help ensure your senior loved ones maneuver safely around their homes, but they also can help ensure the home itself is safe and free of falling hazards.

There When You Need Them

You might be thinking you are there most of the time and can help your senior loved one, so you don’t need home care. Or that they are fine on their own. still, there is a nagging worry that they might fall during the one hour that you leave them alone as you run errands.

Many home care agencies, including Visiting Angels Punta Gorda, can work with you to come up with a schedule to ease your mind and to have a trained professional that specializes in fall prevention in the home just when you need them. If you want someone there all throughout the day as your senior is awake, that can be arranged. They can shadow your senior and help ensure they are steady on their feet. Or if you are just looking to have someone in the home while you are gone for a few hours so that your senior loved one isn’t alone, you can work out a specific schedule with your home care worker and agency for the most convenient care.

Maybe you want someone to help them get ready in the morning, as you worry most about their steadiness when your senior loved one is getting out of bed, trying to put on his pants or taking a shower. A home care worker can help with that, too. 

Home care workers can be there as your senior walks throughout their home to ensure they are safe and steady. They can get things for your senior loved one or ensure what they need is nearby so that they don’t have to walk far and be in danger of falling. If your senior wants to go on a walk outside of the home, they can be an extra set of eyes and hands for them wherever they go. Home care workers can be in the home as much or as little as you need them.

An Extra Set Of Eyes and Hands

Home care workers are trained professionals whose job it is to ensure your senior loved ones are safe. They can spot tripping hazards throughout the home and alert you or your senior to them. They also can help minimize fall hazards. For example, many home care workers can do light housekeeping. They can move clutter that is in the way of your senior’s path or pick up things that have fallen onto the floor. If your senior is paying bills and drops papers on the floor, a home care worker can retrieve them and help organize them, so they don’t have to bend down.

Home care workers can do the dishes for your senior, so they don’t have to stand on their wobbly legs for too long. Or they can reach higher items from cabinets as your senior is preparing dinner, or even help your senior with meal prep.

If your senior loved one has a pet, and the cat bowl gets in the way of their walking path after dinner each night, a home care worker can move it out of the way. Home care workers can anticipate your senior’s needs and help with them. They also will follow a specific set of instructions and plans that you and your senior loved one work out ahead of time, so they can target the area they specifically need help with. 

A Helping Hand

If you are looking for help ensuring your senior is safe this fall and every season of the year, our professionals at Visiting Angels Punta Gorda are here to help. We provide a variety of home care services, including companion care, fall prevention, a safe and steady program and more. 

Our expert team of caregivers serves clients in Punta Gorda, North Fort Myers, Boca Grande, Cape Coral, Sanibel, Captiva, Arcadia and surrounding areas. To learn more about our services, call us at 941-347-8288, or fill out an online form here.