Just last night someone from the rehab center where my dad is staying came to my sister’s home. They wanted to see what kind of home modifications were needed to accommodate him, since he would be coming home soon.
My dad, age 92, has been recovering for about a month from pneumonia. Fortunately, not too many changes in the home will be needed.
Modifying a senior’s home and making it safe is a concern for a growing number of the elderly and their grown children. What if mom falls? What if dad has trouble going to the bathroom?
A new book, Age In Place – a Guide to Modifying, Organizing, and Decluttering Mom and Dad’s Home, promises to rectify many such obstacles around the home. The author, Lynda G. Shrager, is an occupational therapist, social worker, and certified aging in place specialist.
Did you even know there was certification for such a specialist?
There is everything in this book about modifying entrances and exits, the living room and dining room, kitchen, bedrooms, bathrooms, etc. There are also chapters on assessing whether mom and dad need help, and how to have the talk to encourage your parents to take the necessary steps.
Modify the home – mom wants to stay
The author tells the story of one of her patients refusing to leave the house: “I’m warning you, the only way I am leaving this house is horizontally.”
This example shows the stubbornness over leaving the family home, and how to deal with your parent’s heartfelt memories of many years bound up in its rooms and everything in them. In such an encounter, Shrager typically calms the person down, and sympathizes with them.
“I have experienced hundreds of versions of that conversation. The actors are different; the script is the same. Mom and or dad have lived in their home for a long time. They are starting to have difficulty getting around and managing the daily requirements of maintaining a house. The decline is often so slow that every minuscule loss of function just becomes the new norm….”
That is, until a fall or some other health mishap occurs, the author suggests.
The book is further described on her website, Otherwise Healthy. Go to her Facebook page, or order her book at Amazon.
If you’re interested in this topic, why not request our free whitepaper, “58 Ways to Make Your Senior Safe at Home.” It’s written by home care expert Kurt Hjelle, of Safe at Home Health Care.
