Ann Moore-Spencer

As we get old­er many of us find that our bod­ies be­gin to be­tray us. Aches and pains may make ar­eas in our home be­come dif­fi­cult to ac­cess. We may not be able to read­i­ly ac­cess our rooms up­stairs or the gar­den, for ex­am­ple. As a mat­ter of fact, some may be con­fined to one room or small area of their home. I want to en­cour­age us to plan for age­ing to en­sure that our qual­i­ty of life is not com­pro­mised by our be­ing pris­on­ers in our own homes. Ac­ces­si­bil­i­ty chal­lenges are not on­ly the con­cern of the aged. The un­ex­pect­ed­ly in­jured, chron­i­cal­ly ill, or dis­abled can all have chal­lenges of safe­ly nav­i­gat­ing and us­ing their home. Let us help re­store the dig­ni­ty and pos­i­tive­ly im­pact the qual­i­ty of life of our loved ones by con­sid­er­ing a few changes that can be made to the home.

Bed­room

Even if the in­di­vid­ual is con­fined to the bed, the bed­room should be viewed as a place to re­lax and be en­er­gised; not as a prison or place of con­fine­ment. Dec­o­rate the space; cre­ate a com­fort­able, sooth­ing and stim­u­lat­ing am­bi­ence. Fo­cus on the win­dow. If bed-bound, the view out­side could be in­valu­able. You should al­so in­stall at­trac­tive win­dow treat­ments to frame the view. Use drap­ery that can eas­i­ly open to re­veal the view, pro­vide ven­ti­la­tion, or close for pri­va­cy when re­quired. If the view is un­at­trac­tive con­sid­er a win­dow planter of flow­ers to im­prove the view.

The bed is us­ing the fo­cal point of a bed­room. If us­ing an ad­justable hos­pi­tal bed, con­sid­er giv­ing it a facelift by slip-cov­er­ing the head and base boards to make it more at­trac­tive. You can use fab­ric to co­or­di­nate with oth­er fur­nish­es and soft fur­nish­es in the room. But you can al­so slide a dec­o­ra­tive wood­en pan­el 'sleeve' over the ex­ist­ing head and base boards of the bed. Vis­it www.ten­der­careath­ome.com for some ideas for mak­ing the home care hos­pi­tal bed beau­ti­ful.

Light­ing

Have ad­e­quate and well lo­cat­ed gen­er­al light­ing and light­ing for read­ing. Lo­cate switch­es–bath­room and tele­phone–in easy reach­ing dis­tance. Re­mote con­trols and touch lamps can make life eas­i­er.

Seat­ing

Arm­chairs should not be so low as to present dif­fi­cul­ty in sit­ting or in get­ting out of the chair. Use draw­ers eas­i­ly ac­ces­si­ble from a sit­ting po­si­tion for stor­age. Fit the draw­ers with large han­dles, not knobs. Knobs can present dif­fi­cul­ty to grasp. Well-lit, easy reach­able clos­et hang­ing, slid­ing shelves, pull­out racks, carousels and rolling bins will make life eas­i­er.

Floor­ing

Pay at­ten­tion to the floor­ing. No slip­pery sur­faces or trip­ping haz­ards. Re­con­sid­er rugs un­less they can be ad­e­quate­ly se­cured. Rugs can be a haz­ard for those us­ing walk­ers and wheel­chairs.

Bath­room

There is a lot that can be done to make the bath­room safer and pro­mote the dig­ni­ty and in­de­pen­dence for those with mo­bil­i­ty chal­lenges. A sim­ple thing like lever-styled faucets can re­duce dai­ly frus­tra­tion im­mense­ly. Just some joint pains in the hand can make open­ing and clos­ing a faucet a ma­jor un­der­tak­ing. For con­ve­nience and to in­crease ac­ces­si­bil­i­ty you can even use kitchen faucet with a pull­out spray head at the bath­room sink. Con­sid­er in­stalling grab bars, show­er or tub seat­ing, ad­justable show­er heads, chair height toi­lets, tiltable mir­rors and non-slip sur­faces. With mi­nor ren­o­va­tions you may be able to con­struct wide en­try, roll-in show­ers, and wheel chair ac­ces­si­ble sinks and coun­ter­tops. En­sure that the space is well ven­ti­lat­ed to re­duce the risk of ac­cu­mu­lat­ed mois­ture that can make ar­eas slip­pery.

Kitchen

The kitchen is an­oth­er area that can be­come in­ac­ces­si­ble and un­safe for the phys­i­cal­ly chal­lenged. If us­ing a walk­er or crutch­es, slip re­sis­tant floor­ing is crit­i­cal. Some of the fea­tures rec­om­mend­ed for the bed­room and bath­room is rel­e­vant here. Slid­ing or ac­cor­dion fold­ing doors re­duce ob­struc­tion from swing­ing doors. Try to have con­tin­u­ous, but stag­gered height counter top space. En­sure that the fire ex­tin­guish­er is ac­ces­si­ble from a wheel­chair. Front load­ing wash­ers and dry­ers are more ac­ces­si­ble. In­cor­po­rate these ideas in your new con­struc­tion or ren­o­va­tion and make your home a safer, more com­fort­able, and a more con­ve­nient place to live long in­to your se­nior years, af­ter un­ex­pect­ed in­jury, chron­ic ill­ness or dis­abil­i­ty.