From age 40, one should start thinking about the finer details of the home to cater for advancing age.
How many people buy two-storey or three-storey houses, but end up years later using only the small room on the ground floor which is the room closest to the toilet? This seems like a typical story for many aging people.
It is easy when at your prime to think that you will continue to have the same energy as you have today. You forget that your energy level decreases as you age. The huge house with swimming pool that you worked so hard for in the end will have to be sold because your kids have their own homes and it takes too much effort and cost to maintain the large house.
The tens of thousands of dollars that you spent on your ‘renovated’ sophisticated kitchen will then benefit the new owners while you make do with a simple kitchen since you hardly cook nowadays.
Even the shiny slippery floors that used to look so beautiful are now accident triggers – it’s easy to fall on these floors and fracture your thigh or other limbs.
According to Dato Dr BS Bains, founder and CEO of BainsPhysio, the top three areas in the home that are most prone to falls are the bathroom, the shoe rack area and the bedroom.
“Most falls at home occur in the bathroom. So my advice is that from the age of 40, people should enlarge their bathroom and create a seat or put in a chair. When soaping your lower limbs, it’s advisable to sit down. You should also not allow soap to remain on your skin because this may cause skin itchiness. The other necessity is to install railings in the bathroom to hold on to.
Secondly, at the shoe rack, keep a chair to sit down when
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Most falls at home occur in the bathroom.
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wearing socks or shoes and when tying shoe laces. Finally, when wearing underpants, sit on the bed to do it.
These three areas are the most common fall areas. If you can cultivate these habits, it would go far in reducing falls when you are older,” he advises.
He adds that the biggest spending on physiotherapy care for older folks is due to falls where they break or fracture their bones, something which is preventable. This happens for example when they a re on medications which cause dizziness. In this instance, he advises them to stay in bed longer. APR
