Your Home is a sacred place; it is the venue of privacy, family reunions and spare time activities… Nevertheless, since your retirement, your household must be as comfortable as possible, for you to relax between two outdoors activities. You need to be able to benefit from your home fully and long standing. Although a rough patch might slow down your physical activity, you should be able to stay home safe and physically independent! Unfortunately, your apartment or household might not fit the comfort standards you henceforth need. What seemed practical a few years ago doesn’t fit your needs anymore: inaccessible storage, slippery stairs, poorly arranged kitchens… With time, all these small inconveniences can become seriously painful and lead to a bad fall!.

Even though you do not always have the time to realize it, in the everyday turmoil, but your household can sometimes be seriously impractical and create major problems. You are undoubtedly an active senior, but it is imperative that you take some time to make your everyday life at home easier. You certainly do not have to rethink your whole interior; it is useless to initiate a never ending site! The objective of these adjustments should be to make your life at home easier and to prevent you from taking any chances by limiting risk factors, falls and other incidents. Thereafter, you will ensure to adapt your interior to fit your life rhythm.

First of all, before engaging in any rearrangements, you should find some time to take a guided tour of your household. You will need to write down, room after room, all the inconveniences you were able to notice day after day: elevated shelves, work plans or cupboards, slippery surfaces, reduced circulation among the furniture, poor implementation of health and electrical devices…
In a second time, you will have to evaluate potential problems you might be facing a few years from now: stairs, access to certain rooms, etc… These are the main challenges that might need to have some works done around the house. If you have the possibility to start this site right away, then you should hop to it, if not, a census will be enough for now.
If you wish to receive regular visits from your grandchildren, do not forget to take their presence into account and provide them with suitable room accommodations.

According to your diagnosis, you are now capable of evaluating what you can do by yourself. Otherwise, you might call in a professional.
As for the most considerable rearrangements, you might ask an architect or an occupational therapist to counsel you. These specialists will help you rearrange and rethink your house according to your new life habits.

We estimate that one person out of three, who is older than 65 years old; will fall at least once during the year. Since half of the falls occur at home, it is important to arrange the house in order to avoid these incidents. 85% of these falls do not result in serious wounds, but their psychological consequences aren’t insignificant for all that. They might result in an insecurity sentiment, apprehension towards walking and lack of self confidence that might increase the risk of ulterior falls. These falls are the result of several factors linked to the person or to its environment.

The factors related to the person, such as balance, vision or walking troubles cannot be controlled easily. Nevertheless, it is crucial to identify them and to consult with a physician who will try to ease their harmful effects.

Physical obstacles in your home are much easier to control: all possible obstacle barriers, slippery floors, bad lighting… these risk factors must be totally banned from your household. In the bedroom, no furniture piece must be placed as an obstacle between the bed and the door. The room lighting is also important since shady zones transform your pace and make walking around more risky.
The bathroom and Kitchen are certainly the most dangerous rooms in the household. The possibilities of slipping are serious so you must wipe down the floors carefully. The bathmat must be fixed by adhesive bands and by an anti-gliding system integrated to the bathtub’s floor. A support rack can be fixed to the wall, to help you get in and out of your bath easily.

Certain situations require a total reorganization of the domestic space. If you have to achieve such radical changes, consulting with an occupational therapist might considerably help you. Occupational therapy is a paramedical specialty that aims at maintaining your health, developing your psyche and entertaining your articular mobility.
The occupational therapy sessions are prescribed by the treating physician who will determine what’s indicated and what’s inadvisable according to your disease or handicap to be treated… The OT will also council you in readjusting your everyday life.

Concretely, the OT will visit the patient’s house in order to readapt the environment and make sure that everything is accessible. He might suggest installing security racks on the two sides of the stairs, special bathroom equipments, and adapted kitchen equipments such as work plans where it is possible to sit, or special seats conceived to sit down and get up easily. Gardening fans, can also envisage with an OT specialist to build up elevated gardening work plans allowing them to enjoy their hobby while seated. The OT‘s job is to adapt your environment to your handicap, he is somehow the interior designer of the incapacity.

The OT also interferes in the domain of small equipments. He proposes small practical tools destined to facilitate your everyday life: jar openers, electric bottle openers, valve lever taps, and hands free telephones. Year after year, the house is filled with practical and intelligent objects, which evolve according to the needs of its inhabitants.