Home Safety for the Person with Alzheimer's Disease

When caring for someone with Alzheimer's at home you are providing a chance for that person to remain in a familiar, comfortable environment where he can use his strengths and be encouraged to be as independent as possible for as long as possible. A safe, comfortable home can help a person with Alzheimer's feel more relaxed and less overwhelmed. Try to look at the world through the eyes of a person with AD and above all focus on preventing accidents, wandering away from home, and emotional upset. Ask a friend or relative to look at it with you to make sure you have not overlooked any hazards.

Safety

For the safest home, follow as many of these steps as possible:

• Remove any furniture that is not needed.
• Place the remaining furniture so that there is enough space for a walker or wheelchair. This will avoid the need for an elderly or disabled person to move around coffee tables and other barriers. Move any low tables that are in the way.
• Once the person in your care has gotten used to where the furniture is, do not change it.
• Make sure furniture will not move if it is leaned on.
• Make sure the armrests of a favorite chair are long enough to help the person get up and down.
• Add cushioning to sharp corners on furniture, cabinets, and vanities.
• Keep a telephone and flashlight where they are easily available.
• Keep power tools and other dangerous equipment where they are not accessible to the person with AD.
• Remove clutter.
• Remove scatter rugs, which can cause trips and falls.
• Place protective screens in front of fireplaces.
• Cover exposed hot-water pipes.
• Have a carpenter install railings in places where a person might need extra support. (Using a carpenter can ensure that railings can bear a person's full weight and will not give way.) It is worthwhile to consult with an expert, such as a physical or occupational therapist, for help in placing grab bars and safety rails. If they are not in the right position or securely attached they will not lend the support they are intended to provide. The screws MUST go into the wall studs.
• Plan for extra outdoor lighting for good nighttime visibility, especially on stairs and walkways.
• If the person with dementia is incontinent, use fabric pads that blend with the upholstery. These are available in many colors and are machine washable. These may not cause the embarrassment that regular pads can.
• Make chair seats 20" high. (Wood blocks or a wooden platform can be placed under large, heavy furniture to raise it to this level.)
• Place masking or colored tape on glass doors and picture windows.
• Use automatic night-lights in the rooms used by the person in your care.
• Clear fire-escape routes.
• Provide smoke alarms on every floor and outside every bedroom.
• Place a fire extinguisher in the kitchen.
• Think about using monitors and intercoms.
• Place nonskid tape on the edges of stairs (and consider painting the edge of the first and last step a different color from the floor to help with depth perception).
• Install a sturdy gate with a lock on any dangerous stairs. Gate must be higher than the person with AD's waist. Baby gates are dangerous as people may try to climb over them.
• It is easier to walk on thin-pile carpet than on thick pile. Avoid busy patterns.
• Be sure stairs have even surfaces with no metal strips or rubber mats to cause tripping.
• Remove all hazards that might lead to tripping.
• Adjust or remove rapidly closing doors.
• Cover exposed hot-water pipes.
• Provide enough no-glare lighting--indirect is best.
• Place light switches next to room entrances so the lights can be turned on before entering a room. Consider "clap-on" lamps beside the bed.
• Use 100-to 200–watt lightbulbs for close-up activities (but make sure lamps can handle the extra wattage).
• For those who tend to wander, create a safe path through the home for a "wander loop."
• Put reflector tape on furniture and sharp corners.
• Use reflector tape to create a path to follow from the bedroom to the bathroom at night.
• Cover radiators with radiator guards.
• Use child-proof plugs in all electrical outlets.
• Lock the cellar and garage doors; hide the garage remote control.
• Lock liquor cabinets.
• Remove or lock up all poisonous household items. Colorful cleaning products may be mistaken for food.
• Remove all sharp items.
• Remove poisonous plants from the house and yard.
• Install safety latches/locks on the doors and fenced/ gated exteriors. Install alarms on the doors.
• Rid the home of firearms or store them in a locked cabinet, with the bullets in a separate locked cabinet.
• Cover smooth or shiny surfaces to reduce glare, which upsets or confuses the person with Alzheimer's.
• Eliminate shadows by creating a uniform level of light with uplights that reflect off the ceiling. (Ask a lighting store for a lamp that doesn't cast shadows.)
• Cover or remove mirrors if they are upsetting to the person with AD, who may not recognize himself.
• Store car keys in a locked container; ask a mechanic to disable the car so you can still use it but the person with AD cannot.