Choosing the Right Health gift for your Old age Parent
Let’s admit it choosing the right health gift for your old age parent can be so stressful most especially when you don’t know what you want or the right thing to get them.
Assisted living aids are the most common and special gift. It helps them to maintain independence, stay safe at home and manage their situation better. This may certainly be a wheelchair, walking sticks, any gadget to open baby bottles and cans, or devices to help their breathing, such as oxygen within a bottle.
There are various techniques and devices which will help older people walking around the stairs. A good bit of general advice is to lead using the stronger leg when becoming greater the stairs (‘the very good goes up’), and let the weaker leg lead when heading down the stairs (‘the bad goes down’). An OT or physiotherapists are able to demonstrate these techniques within more detail.
Stair train track
Having stair rails (also often called hand rails) on both sides in the stairway can offer good support with all the stairs. Many staircases use a hand rail on a single side, but not both – if this can be the case in your relative’s residence, you may want to consider having one fitted on the other hand. The length and style of the rails (there are various types) may be important, too.
Walking aids
If your relative needs to use a walking stick to help with going around stairs, there is a certain technique to this far too. It’s important that they learn this, because by using a walking stick incorrectly about the stairs could put all of them at greater risk of the fall. Again, this is something ideal explained and demonstrated by way of a physiotherapist.
If your relative uses a walking frame, leave one over the rest the stairs and another towards the bottom, as trying to hold a walking frame around the stairs is risky.
Stairlifts
Although stairlifts may be relatively expensive, they are a great choice for people with limited mobility the way it allows them to stay living independently in homes with stairs, and may well avoid having to go the bed downstairs. You can get advice about stairlifts at ageukmobility.co.uk
Floor lifts
These are lifts specifically designed for domestic environments, usually travelling through the ground floor to the floor above. Installing a through floor lift will in all probability require a degree of home adaptation, and the lift requires up space on both in the floors it travels in between. They may be a good option for wheelchair end users, or in homes where a stair lift cannot possibly be fitted.
The complexity and cost these adaptations would depend about the home’s existing layout plus the scope of the modifications needed.
