At Thrive for Life, we are experienced in helping seniors outfit their homes with the right care and attention to detail to prevent various kinds of accidents and injuries.
Fall prevention is critically important in assisting seniors who remain in their homes. The CDC shows 3 million falls are reported annually, and about 1/10 of these or 300,000 involve hip fractures.
With this in mind, we help families to plan for the future with lifts, supports, and many other tools and resources to keep elderly family members safe.
What we’ve learned is that each person has their own individual needs.
Some people stress support and assistance at every turn, where others want to have different supports that allow them to remain more mobile and active.
We worked with Jim; a World War II vet with a heart of gold. Jim was shown the full package – stairlift, full ADA bathroom, etc.
Jim’s evaluation showed that he had strong upper-body mobility and was mainly hampered by a fake leg. He was in the process of getting an improved prosthesis that would facilitate better mobility and range of motion.
“I don’t need all that stuff,” Jim said. “Just give me the support bars and a ramp out front to get in and out.”
We did suggest Jim get some of the very minimal basics based on our experience and analysis of the property, but it wasn’t difficult to come up with a working plan that satisfied everybody, including the kids.
As for the stairs, Jim settled for replacing flimsy wooden handrails with bolted in stainless steel ones that would handle his body weight.
“I’ll crawl up the steps if I have to,” he said.
Another thing Jim asked for was built-in resistance bands on the back patio. Through a surprising number of years, by keeping his upper body strength, he was able to get around just fine without some of the advanced supports that many of our customers need even if they have all four limbs.
The moral of the story is that you need to understand individual needs and expectations. However, you also have to plan for adequate safety, looking at someone’s evaluation and health conditions, and everything else. By getting this kind of qualified consulting, seniors can rest easy that they have what they need to stay safe in their own homes and support their own particular lifestyles because let’s be frank – they’ve earned these golden years!
Contact us to learn more about ADA accommodations and what we can do to help reach them.