Home Safety Checklist

Caring for a person with Alzheimer's Disease (AD) is a challenge that calls upon the patience, creativity, knowledge, and skills of each caregiver. The following tips, we hope, will help you cope with some of these challenges and develop creative solutions to increase the security and freedom of the person with AD in your home, as well as your own peace of mind.

It is best to begin with a checklist to help you make each room in your home a safer environment for the person with AD. Next, is to increase awareness of the ways specific impairments associated with the disease can create particular safety hazards in the home. Specific home safety tips are listed to help you cope with some of the more hazardous behaviors that may occur as the disease advances. Also included are tips for managing, driving and planning for natural disaster safety.

General Safety Concerns: People with AD become increasingly unable to take care of themselves. However, individuals will move through the disease in their own unique manner. As a caregiver, you face the ongoing challenge of adapting to each change in the person's behavior and functioning. The following general principles may be helpful.

1. Think prevention. It is very difficult to predict what a person with AD might do. Just because something has not yet occurred, does not mean it should not be cause for concern. Even with the best-laid plans, accidents can happen. Therefore, checking the safety of your home will help you take control of some of the potential problems that may create hazardous situations.
2. Adapt the environment. It is more effective to change the environment than to change most behaviors. While some AD behaviors can be managed with special medications prescribed by a doctor, many cannot. You can make changes in an environment to decrease the hazards and stressors that accompany these behavioral and functional changes.
3. Minimize danger. By minimizing danger, you can maximize independence. A safe environ-ment can be a less restrictive environment where the person with AD can experience increased security and more mobility.

Is it Safe to Leave the Person With AD Alone?: This issue needs careful evaluation and is certainly a safety concern. The following points may help you decide. Does the person with AD: become confused or unpredictable under stress? recognize a dangerous situation; for example, fire? know how to use the telephone in an emergency? know how to get help? stay content within the home? wander and become disoriented? show signs of agitation, depression, or withdrawal when left alone for any period of time? attempt to pursue former interests or hobbies that might now warrant supervision such as cooking, appliance repair, or woodworking? You may want to seek input and advice from a health care professional to assist you in these considerations. As Alzheimer's disease progresses, these questions will need ongoing evaluation.

Home Safety: Room by Room

Home Safety: Behavior by Behavior