Dementia brings its own set of challenges, both for the person with dementia and their caregivers. As I crawled through this journey with my Mama, I learned that it was unpredictable—changing every month, week, day, and soon every hour. You'll find that a lot in my posts.
To help keep Mama's independence and ensure her safety from thousands of miles away, I implemented many changes.
Creating a safe environment is crucial for those with dementia. Thinking one step ahead is vital. In this post, I’ll share my tips on how I ensured Mama was safe whilst maintaining her independence. Adjust these suggestions to suit your loved one's needs.
If close by or you have trusted carers/family/friends, there's probably no need. When I was home I'd still keep everything the same. Consistency was key for Mama.
Simplify and declutter: You will see this at the beginning of every single one of my posts. Reducing confusion and hazards are a must! That means only leaving what is needed. Example for us as kettle, micowave and toaster on the counter. Dementia clock was there too, of course. And a fruit bowl.
Install Safety Devices: All homes should be equipped with smoke alarms however I installed smart alarms and smart thermostat. Super easy to use and always on. Have a couple of people be alerted (nearby) if anything should happen.
Plates, Cups, Glasses, Utensils: Remove breakable items: Knives, glass, corkscrews. Walk around your kitchen, clean out the drawers and just leave the necessary items. See my post on Dementia Plates/Glasses/Cups.
Motion Lighting: Love motion lights. Used them as Mama used to walk around in the dark. These were fantastic as Mama declined, she no longer knew where the light switch was.
Stovetop:
Automatic Gas Shut-off: I installed this quite early on as I foresaw the inevitable. Is it safe to let a person with dementia cook? It depends on each individual's cognitive ability.
Implement safety tips, but remain vigilant. Just pay attention to your loved one and what they do on a daily basis. It's hard. You try and convince yourself that they are okay and have bad days, but it's the bad days that you have to pay attention to.
I used stove knob protectors and turned off the burners at first.
I even considered purchasing a new cooker, but it was so expensive. This particular model was the induction cooktop. So the surface would be cool to the touch and no fires. But then the other concern was Mama burning herself. Even though the stovetop wouldn't burn, the pots/pans ("special" pots/pans that came with a very high price) would be hot so that was defeating the purpose.
So what was I trying to accomplish? Giving her the independence and not admitting to myself that it was time to take that away from her.
When Mama put the kettle on the stove AND then ketchup-gate happened (on the My Journey blog) , I realised that I couldn't risk it anymore. So turned the gas off entirely. Told her it was broken.
Fridge/Freezer: So this is based on me not being there.
Keep it simple. Milk goes in same place. You buy a bottle of milk? Maybe replace with a carton. Same goes for any drinks. Anything in jars, put in an unbreakable container and label or you can put them in an unbreakable jar and re-wash and use. See where I'm going with this? Broken glass is a no-no for PWD's. Switch to unbreakable.
I'd cook a ton of meals and put them in a meal prep container and then in the freezer. I prepared 2 months worth and also bought some frozen meals from either M & S or any supermarket. This was for carers to heat up. I also labeled the drawers of the freezer. This helped me too so that when I called and Mama was looking for something (ice cream) I could tell her to pull out the 3rd drawer and so on.
Washing Machine: Oh the fun with that. How do I put this on? It's not working. How do I open it? How do I close it? How do I put this on? These lovely washing machines have soooooooo many options. Nothing simplistic about them. Never really noticed that before. Since it's just routine and it's what you do. I looked for a new one. I looked for a simple to use, just press and go model. And it turned out the one we had - was the simplest. So I got creative - we only ever used two settings. So I put white labels on the rest of the options and then pink and green neon labels to point to on/off and open. This worked for at least a year. I simplified it. Then inevitably Mama couldn't figure that out either. But it worked... until it didn't.
Non-slip mats: That was a NO for us. Mama shuffled (due to dementia) and I couldn't risk them being a tripping hazard.
Finally:
Monitor Consistently: Frequent check-ins and adjustments to their environment can help accommodate the continuing needs of a person with dementia.
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