Determining if a home is safe for someone who is living with dementia can be difficult. There are some key factors to making the most accurate assessment possible, and it first starts by identifying possible areas of danger and hazards. We’ll discuss some of these factors in this article.

Is there adequate lighting or are there tripping hazards?

As people age, vision changes occur that include needing more light to see things, and losing peripheral vision. These changes make it important to have a room well lighted and to remove items that may become tripping hazards such as throw rugs and coffee tables. As someone progresses through dementia, they lose even more of the peripheral vision and tend to only see what is directly in front as if they are looking through binoculars, as well as having trouble with depth perception and knowing the distance of an object. These changes make it more difficult to move around safely.

Is there access danger areas such as the garage, pool or outdoor areas?

When someone is living with dementia, they can begin to have difficulty navigating their environment both in the house and outside of the house. People living with dementia can become turned around very easily and get lost.

Are emergency devices in working order?

While there are many types of emergency devices, a few to confirm are in working order are:

• Smoke alarms
• Carbon monoxide detector
• Smoke detectors
• Locks
• Fire extinguishers

Other questions and factors to consider for Dementia home safety

• Is the hot water heater temperature a set at 120 degrees or less?
• Is there access to weapons, cleaning solutions and posions or medications?
• Can your loved on safely use appliances?
• Can your loved one utilize safety devices and their phone if necessary?
• Do you have an emergency kit and numbers somewhere accessible in case it is needed quickly?

This list is certainly not exhaustive, so we do also recommend you take a look at the Health In Aging and ADT websites for more tips when assessing the safety of someone’s current living situation who is living with Dementia. Orchard at Brookhaven is also here to offer guidance to Atlanta area residences in making adjustments to your home or if a change in living is needed.

For this article we wanted to consider the question “How does someone know if what they are experiencing is normal aging or something else?”

Signs of Normal vs Abnormal Aging

A brain that is aging without dementia, needs longer to process information and learn something new. It also needs less distractions such as music playing or the TV on in the background when reading or trying to pay attention to a conversation. As we age, the brain holds on to more and more information due to the fact that those brains have taken in more information over a longer period of time. Therefore, recalling a name might become more difficult because there are more people to remember. However, if someone starts to forget the names of people closest to them, or has always been excellent at remembering names, then this may be an indication of something more than normal aging.

Most people start to be concerned about dementia the older they get and this is for a good reason. As we age, the probability of dementia increases. But just because someone forgets why they go into a room, or cannot find a word, does not mean that they have dementia. One thing to pay attention to is if you lose a word, can you think if it later? And if you can’t remember why you are in a room, can you remember why you went in, after retracing your steps? People with dementia will not be able to remember the word or why they were in the room later in the day.

Identifying Significant Change

One of the most important factors is if what someone is experiencing is a significant CHANGE, meaning that if someone has always been challenged at directions and gets turned around while out driving, this may not be an indicator of a not normally aging brain. There are several tests that are given that help provide a good idea of brain function and health. The AD8 is a set of questions that have 3 probable answers which are:

1. There is no difference
2. Unsure about a difference (there could be a difference in ability but you may not have enough information to answer the question)
3. There Is a difference from how the person used to be, or what they could do.

You can download the AD8 test here.

Getting a baseline cognitive test is a very good idea because it is important to know if there is a CHANGE in brain function. If you do find that there is something that is not a normal process of aging, it is best to find that our as soon as possible in order to start making plans, which includes looking into possible support services if ever needed. Orchard at Brookhaven is a focused community in the Atlanta area for people needing support and has a variety of living opportunities in several neighborhoods within the community. These smaller neighborhood offer a variety of choices, purposeful support, individual support plans and a highly trained team.