Caring For Your Parents

Home is where the heart is and where most people want to live out their lives with dignity and independence. Sadly, a serious home injury can put an end to independent living and drastically reduce a person’s quality of life. The good news? Many home accidents can be prevented.

Home safety starts with a conversation and adult children are often the best ones to raise the subject. Lead by example. The same small changes that would keep an older adult safe at home – working smoke alarms, carbon monoxide alarms, grab bars in the bathroom, etc. – will protect the rest of your family too. Start by improving the safety of your own home, then work with your older loved ones to upgrade the safety of theirs.

Visit MySafeHome.org

HSC has created a first-of-its-kind online tool to help people find and fix the leading causes of accidents in the home. MySafeHome.org allows you to tour a virtual home, room-by-room, learning about the leading causes of serious home injuries. State-of-the-art digital animation will show you the major risk areas, indoors and out, and let you know exactly what to do to keep your loved ones safe.

Room-by-Room Safety: Staircase

Falls are the leading cause of home injury among older adults and stairs are especially risky. The Home Safety Council recommends that you have handrails on both sides of the stairs, so you can prevent a fall, whether you’re going up the stairs or down. Keep stairs clear of clutter at all times and make sure you can see where you’re going. Install nice bright lights at the top and the bottom of the stairs. Click here and select “Hallway” to learn more.

Home Safety Tips

Use the following tips and checklists to make sure your entire family, young and old, stays safe at home.

• Falls Prevention Tips
• Stairway Safety
• Home Fire Safety Tips
• Poison Prevention Tips
• Falls Prevention Checklist
• Stay Fit to Prevent Falls Checklist