Reviewing Fire Safety with Your Senior

Home fires are a very serious danger for all people, but can be particularly pressing for seniors. Each year throughout the United States approximately 3000 people died as a result of home fires, and a large percentage of these are older adults. Reviewing fire safety with your senior is an important step toward protecting them, and helping them know not only how to avoid home fires, but also how to respond effectively if a fire should occur.

Senior Care Cleveland NC – Reviewing Fire Safety with Your Senior

Some fire safety issues to review with your aging parent include:

• Your parent should know to respond quickly to any alert from their smoke detector.
• Work with your parent to create a fire safety plan, including an evacuation plan. Studies have shown that people have approximately two minutes to get out of a home that is on fire in order to protect themselves, and it is very important that you not only create these evacuation plans, but also that you review them and even practice them with your senior to help them feel comfortable meeting this goal.
• Work with your parent to also create alternative plans in the event they are not able to get out of the house. If they are dealing with mobility issues or balance problems, or realize there is a fire when they are in an area of the home already blocked by the flames, they should know what to do. This should include alerting emergency workers or neighbors of their presence in the home.
• Real candles should never be left on without someone in the room with them. It is very important candles are not exposed to potentially flammable materials such as curtains.
• Keep a container of baking soda close by your seniors stove to be used for emergencies such as grease fires. These very dangerous fires actually worsen when water is added to them, and the fastest way to extinguish them is to suffocate them with baking soda or salt.
• Your parent should never use a space heater that is too close to other objects, or that is not designed to turn off automatically if tipped over.
• Ensure your senior never uses items intended for outdoor use, such as generators or grills, inside their home.

Helping your aging parent stay safe is a valuable service of a senior care provider. Encouraging them to make good choices, reminding them of potentially dangerous activities, and providing supervision and support for an elderly adult who may be dealing with cognitive functioning decline can be extremely beneficial, and help to prevent a wide variety of serious dangers for your parent. Particularly if your parent is coping with issues such as mobility problems, hearing loss, low vision, and cognitive challenges, having a senior home care services provider with them can allow them to stay more independent, engage in more elements of their daily life, and still remain safe.

Source:  http://www.redcross.org/get-help/how-to-prepare-for-emergencies/types-of-emergencies/fire

If you or an aging loved one are considering Senior Care Services in Cleveland NC, please contact the caring staff at TenderHearted Home Care today. (704) 612-4132.