Benefits of Senior-Friendly Changes to Your Home




Senior-friendly changes are recommended by occupational therapists and physicians for a better aging experience. What does ‘senior-friendly’ mean and how does it benefit our elderly? Senior-friendly is a term often talked about in the forums of design for aging. ‘Senior-friendliness’ can be said as the ability to empower seniors with independence while minimising the incidence of falls. Falls, in specificity, because it is one of the most common concerns in senior living. Needs of senior citizens at home are quite simple and straightforward. The setback lies in the need-fulfillers available to seniors. These need-fulfillers or everyday solutions cannot be easily used by seniors due to reduced physical abilities. Enter, Design For Aging.

Senior-friendly home design elements involve careful observation and study of ergonomics of seniors. These geriatrics-prescribed house modifications or additions are easy to implement but have a profound impact on seniors’ wellness. Some of these design elements lean toward safety. The rest towards wellness. These changes can be a motivational boost to independent seniors and the diligent children who have to reside apart, due to career choices or other life decisions.

Benefits of employing Design For Aging
  • Clinical benefits of reduced pain and strain on seniors’ muscles and limb strength.
  • Reduced incidences of falls. If falls occur, the impact on seniors is lowered considerably. Which we shall delve into detail below.
  • Emotional well-being of elders is taken care of with the help of colour palettes, themes and decor.
  • Memory enhancing aids in the form of colour differentiation and way-finding signage bring down frustration in seniors facing dementia.
  • Seniors can be more independent and worry-free while going about their daily activities.
  • Design For Aging supplements existing health conditions in seniors by reducing pain and aiding in movement and posture. This helps prevent worsening of health condition if any.
  • Seniors’ improved morale resulting due to the enabling of daily self-care and the fact of aging safely at home.
Impact of Design For Aging on falls among seniors

1 out of 3 elders falls at least once every year. Falls have become a concern equivalent to major diseases. This is because of the aftermath of falls are serious and painful on seniors and their day-to-day life. Falls cannot be conquered by one means alone. An integrated approach is needed to tackle falls. One of the criterion that can reduce falls is the living space arrangements.

The aspects involved in the process of Design For Aging – vision, mobility and flexibility, walk support and unhindered or unobstructed spaces make way for seniors to move around without fear of falling. A study has established that home assessment and modification reduced the risk of falls by 20%.

Caring for senior parents is facilitated better with the use of geriatric-friendly design and practices. Independence of seniors is necessary and easy to follow. Independent seniors have stronger minds and healthier lifestyles. It is a right of seniors to lead peaceful lives and not our duty to provide them with a good life.
Location: 904, 9th floor, RWD Atlantis, Nelson Manickam Rd, Metha Nagar, Aminjikarai, Chennai, Tamil Nadu 600029, India

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Best Out the Pests! And All You Need to Know

Image
Drive pests out of your home before they drive you crazy. An ideal home not only includes functional safety but also protection from health hazards such as pests. Commonly found pests include insects like roaches and other creepy-crawlies, rodents and mosquitoes and many more. The bane of such pests is not limited to causing ill-health, material damage is also one of the biggest consequences of infestation. Let’s tackle this giant of a task together. Senior-friendly home design involve using wooden furniture important for elders’ painless comfort and safety.  Wooden furniture are designed to prevent uneventful abrasions or wounds caused while walking by or using them. These are also hard to source and most often custom-made for seniors. Such implements of age other valuables like old books, rugs, clothes are put to danger when pests exist at home. Pest control eradicates all the pesky consequences along with the pests. There are various methods in which pest control can be exe
Read more

Reasons Why should Living Spaces be Senior-Friendly?

Image
Senior members in every family need a comfortable and stress-life for their healthy existence. So it is important to create a safe and senior-friendly environment so that they can feel more confident and be largely independent in carrying out their daily-living chores in their homes. Old age ushers a plethora of physical, emotional, lifestyle and cognitive changes which impact the movement and overall living of the elderly. Performing simple things as reading sign-boards or getting through a narrow aisle can be tedious. Many seniors also have chronic conditions like Arthritis, Osteoporosis and Parkinson’s disease which hinders their free movement. Falling poses life-threatening impairments and injuries to the fragile body and bones of elders. So safety and security features must be in focus while making adequate measures for fall prevention and fall protection. The special needs of elderly persons who have physical impairments must be definitely taken into consideration in
Read more

Indoor Falls Among Seniors – Impact and Prevention

Image
Seniors tend to fall often due to the declining physical ability and unsteady gait which is a development of advancing age. These falls occur either at home or outdoors. There are differences in the consequences and circumstances of these falls. It is important to understand these differences for fall prevention in elderly. The focus of this article is on the indoor falls among seniors. In a study of 765 elders in the U.S., 598 falls occurred indoors as compared to 524 outdoor falls, over a period of two years. This article was published in the journal of American Geriatrics Society, bringing out the difference between indoor and outdoor falls. The following distinctions surfaced: Seniors who fell indoors had an inactive lifestyle in comparison to the seniors who fell outdoors. Indoor falls also resulted due to the higher level of physical disability of seniors as opposed to outdoor falls. Seniors who fell outdoors were in a better health condition. Seniors who fell outdoors
Read more