5 Ways Home Management Services Help Seniors Remain Safe

Senior home services can provide home management help to ensure that a Minnesota senior citizen can remain comfortably and safely in their home. Home management services for seniors can include a range of tasks such as assessing the senior’s needs and providing any needed safety modifications.

Here are five ways senior home services can help to enhance a senior’s safety and well-being:

1. A professional assessment of the senior’s needs.

Changes in a senior’s physical and mental health as they age may or may not be readily apparent to a family member or caregiver. A trained senior home services consultant knows how to ask the right questions and perform a thorough evaluation of the elderly person’s needs. For example, an assessment may include the senior’s ability to safely navigate the home, prepare nutritious meals and to safely bathe or shower, as well as the senior’s need for companionship and community.

2. A professional assessment of the home’s safety.

Many things we take for granted can pose challenges and safety concerns for seniors. Senior home services consultants can help to determine whether hand railings are needed in certain areas, if necessities such as the telephone and furniture are well placed for safe and optimal use, and whether floor mats pose a safety hazard due to slipping.

Other assessments might include fire safety. For example, the senior home services provider might assess whether cords are frayed or too close to a heat source, whether oven mitts are placed too close to stove burners, and so on.

Watch Kristin Kopp, owner of At Home Solutions explain more about home management services when she was interviewed by Seniors on Screen.

3. Providing basic home adaptation services.

A senior home services provider that is trained in occupational safety can make many needed adjustments. For example, the service provider can convert throw rugs that slip into secure non-slip rugs, re-arrange furniture so that items such as ottomans do not pose tripping hazards, and that reaching for certain items does not pose risks to the senior.

4. Providing referrals to qualified service providers for home adaptations.

Some home adaptations that are needed to ensure senior home safety require a handyman service. These adaptations may include making changes to stairways, adding ramps and installing grab bars and hand railings in hallways and bathrooms. In these cases the senior home services consultant will typically refer these adaptations to a trusted service provider in the Minneapolis area who is skilled at making these changes.

5. Providing companion care, geriatric care or travel assistance.

Many seniors benefit from occasional companion care visits or assistance getting to the store, a place of worship or to social events. The appropriate caregiver will be assigned depending upon the senior’s needs. If the senior has a medication regimen, a nurse practitioner can be assigned to set up the medication schedule, while a home health aide may be assigned to manage the medications.

Seniors living alone benefit from companion visits or geriatric care visits because they provide social interaction, ongoing safety assessments, and personal care services such as meal preparation, bathing assistance and light housekeeping.

In each case, home management and senior care services can be tailored precisely to the needs of the senior, and modified over time to meet changing requirements.