6 Helpful In-Home Caregiving Products

6 Helpful In-Home Caregiving Products:
Tools to Help Make Caregiving a Little Easier

 

Practical tools can help make any job a little easier, especially tools that are designed specifically for the situation at hand. Thankfully there’s a wide variety of products to help in-home caregivers care for their senior loved ones and help keep them safe. Caregiving is a tough enough job as it is. The following are a few products that can help make a caregiver’s job, and a senior’s life, a little easier.

6 Helpful In-Home Caregiving Products

1. Automatic Stove Turn-Off With Preprogrammed Timer
   Motion sensors and timers are a great a resource for anyone caring for a loved one with dementia. They can be installed on any number of household fixtures, including stoves and faucets. If there’s no movement near the stove or faucet for a specific time, the sensor triggers an automatic shut-off. The automatic stove turn-off device will automatically turn the stove off after the preprogrammed 8 minute time period if the person leaves the kitchen and forgets to return. If a person turns the stove on, leaves the kitchen, and does not return within the default 6 minute warning time period, the device begins a series of beeping alerts and flashing lights for a two minute period. Learn all the details at thiscaringhome.org.
2. LED Night Lights
   Dark nighttime hallways and bathrooms are difficult to navigate for anyone, but they can be especially hazardous for a senior person with limited vision or mobility. Wall-socket plug–in LED night lights are environment-friendly, relatively inexpensive, and automatic, which means they turn on and off depending on the level of ambient light in the hallway or room.
3. Traction Socks
   Hardwood floors may look lovely, but the slick surface can be dangerous for those with unsteady footing and slower reflexes. A few pairs of traction socks—they have rubber grips on the soles—will make it easier and safer for your parent to move around with confidence. Be sure your senior loved one’s slippers have nonskid bottoms, too.
4. Bed Risers
   Raising a senior’s bed makes it easier for them to get in and out, since they won’t have to use their legs as much to lower or raise themselves. Simply place one bed riser under each of the legs of the bedframe to raise the bed five inches. 
5. Inflatable bed shapoo-er
   For caregivers whose senior loved one is no longer able to get out of bed, an inflatable vinyl “sink” for washing hair can certainly be handy. Simply inflate it and fill with water. A hose makes it easy to drain. This would work well for seniors who can get out of bed as well, because it offers a relaxing way to have one’s hair washed.
6. Motorized Lift-Up Chair
   Motorized, lift-up chairs can be extremely helpful when the person has severely limited movement. When a lift-up chair is used, the person is brought to a semi-standing position by an electrically-operated motor located underneath the chair that lifts the entire chair up and forward. However, to come to full standing, the person must be able to push down on the armrests and straighten the torso or the person will need caregiver assistance.
   
   Lift-up chairs should only be used with supervision. The controls that recline or lift the chair to a standing position are generally too complex for most persons with dementia to operate. A fall could occur when a person attempts to climb out of the chair that is in the reclining position.

You can find product descriptions and reviews of various products for seniors at thiscaringhome.org, a website run by Weill Cornell Medical College, and elderstore.com.
 

 

BLOG Date: Tuesday, february 16, 2016
Writer: Ryan Allen