subject: How to Ensure the Home Security of the elderly [print this page] How to Ensure the Home Security of the elderly
Many middle aged Americans get to a point where they have to take care of their elderly parents. This reversal of roles can be emotionally draining. Seeing someone who once cared for you start to have their physical health and mental faculties fail is one of the hardest things imaginable. With all of the emotion, it can be difficult to figure out what you need to do to ensure your elderly parents' quality of life. Luckily, there are many non-profit organizations now that can help with things like managing the process of dying, such as Hospice. But while your parents are still fairly healthy and not ready for end-of-life care, there can be a lot of murky waters to navigate.
One of the most important things that you need to consider as the responsible adult is your parents' home security. Now that they're older, they might not be as mindful as they had previously been, and this can put them at risk for break-ins, identity theft, and other kinds of crimes and assaults. So keep the following ideas in mind.
1. Invest in a good home security system.
This is the most basic precaution that you can take for your parents. Many home security systems are relatively cheap, and you can even have them connected to fire alarms and smoke detectors. These home alarms will ensure that the police are alerted if a break-in occurs, which your aging parents might sleep through or be too disoriented to act on. The only thing you have to do is make sure that someone activates the system every night before your parents go to sleep, otherwise it will be useless.
2. Consider moving them into a retirement community.
Many aging parents will be quite stubborn about this, because they see it as a fundamental loss of independence. In a way, they are right, but many elderly people no longer have the ability to manage an entire house to themselves, and would greatly benefit from living in a smaller, more manageable space. Emphasize how they'll be able to meet people their own age which will be especially beneficial if many of their friends have passed away and if their medical state is good enough, you can even put them in a place that's like an apartment building. Show them how this is a way to gain independence, and emphasize how different the experience of living there will be from the nursing homes of their nightmares.
3. Invest in a medical alarm.
Like a home alarm, this is one of the simplest yet most important devices. They are small and can be worn around the neck or wrist. This way, if your mom or dad is having a sudden onset of symptoms like sever chest pain, or falls and cannot get up, all they have to do is push a button to alert the emergency authorities, and a full ambulance crew will be sent to their home right away. Without such a device, they could be completely helpless, left alone to suffer or even die when someone's help could have made all of the difference in the world.
