Six Safety Tips for a Senior with COPD

Safety for your senior with COPD might look slightly different than it would if she didn’t have COPD. Try some of these ideas.

Home Care Services Midland Park NJ – Six Safety Tips for a Senior with COPD

Shoes Keep Her Stable on Her Feet

Your senior might not like wearing shoes, especially inside the house, but they can help her to stay stable on her feet. Make sure that the shoes are the right size for her feet and that they’ve got a stable, solid sole. It’s also a good idea for them to fit around her heel rather than slipping on.

Grab Bars Are Even More Important

Grab bars are crucial for safety, but for a senior with COPD, they can be absolutely essential. When your senior is short of breath, she might not be able to stand upright for too long. Having a grab bar to lean against or to reach for can help her to stay on her feet instead of falling.

Single-floor Living Is Helpful

Living on a single floor is another step your senior might want to take. As her lung issues become more difficult to manage, taking the stairs even once per day can be exhausting. A stair lift can help a lot, but it can also help for your senior to relocate the essential parts of her life to the main floor of the house if she can do so.

Vents, Fans, and Air Conditioning All Help

Humid, stale air is incredibly uncomfortable for seniors with COPD. Your senior might find that cooking or even taking a bath can be incredibly difficult if vents aren’t working. Ceiling and other fans help to keep air moving, while air conditioning helps to remove some of the humidity from the air. All of these tools together can help her to breathe easier.

Clutter Steals Energy from Her

Clutter forces your senior to move and to shuffle items more than she should in order to do what she needs to do. That can burn way more energy than your elderly family member can afford to burn. Rearranging your senior’s living space can help with this, as can reducing the overall clutter in her home.

Make Sure Oxygen Is Accessible

If your elderly family member is using oxygen regularly, make sure that it’s accessible and that it’s easy for her to manage. Some tanks and concentrators use longer tubes that allow your senior to move around more freely. But it’s important that the tube doesn’t get kinked or caught anywhere and that it doesn’t become a tripping hazard.

All of this can be a lot for your senior to keep up with on her own. Home care services providers can help both you and your senior to stay on top of what she needs and what specific safety issues are a potential risk for her.

If you or a senior family member are considering hiring Home Care Services in Midland Park NJ, please contact the caring staff at Caring Solutions Home Care LLC. In-home senior care servicing Bergen & Passaic Counties. Call today at (973) 427-3553.