Good home care is never just about coming to an individual’s home and caring for their basic needs. It is also about ensuring a high quality of life in various ways. As summer approaches, this means making it easier for residents to enjoy going outdoors.
Walking long distances may no longer be something they can do, but enjoying the garden is another matter. Not everyone has a garden of any decent size, but where people do have these, they can be a great asset, provided they are looked after.
Indeed, one area of potential problems is when this does not occur. Not only does neglect leave the garden looking messy, but it also wastes a great opportunity to establish a safe and attractive place that can be enjoyed by people of limited mobility and advanced years.
This is why part of the care we offer includes preparing and maintaining gardens for senior citizens to use and enjoy safely. Spring is the ideal time to do this, setting it up so that they can enjoy long and (hopefully) sunny days in the summer.
What Are The Most Important Steps To Take To Make A Garden Safer For Older People?
A variety of different steps can be taken to help make gardens safer for older people:
– Making paths and paved areas safe
– Elevated beds to make reaching them easier
– Safe plants
– Shaded areas with seating
– Outdoor lighting for navigation
Let us consider each of these in turn.
Some outsides may have problems with their paths and paved areas, especially if the residents have been too frail to give them the TLC they need.
This could mean stones or paving slabs are broken or uneven, making them a trip or fall hazard, or slippery due to moss and weed growth. They may also be narrower because vegetation has grown up either side of them and needs cutting back.
Fixing this is a priority, ensuring the surface is even, broad and not slippery. In some cases, it will need to be made wheelchair-friendly and that may require resurfacing altogether for a smoother ride.
Elevated beds can make reaching plants easier, which relieves strain on the backs of older people, while having low-maintenance plants can also make caring for them easier to do, without the need for larger and potentially more dangerous tools like spades.
Getting safe plants is something that can easily be overlooked. This means removing hazards like thorny bushes that someone might fall into.
Moreover, tree branches should be cut back and dead trees removed, as they could fall and even fallen branches could be a trip hazard. Also, when tidying up an overgrown garden, things like nettles and thistles should be the first thing to be removed.
How Can You Prevent Heatstroke In Seniors Over Summer?
A good summer should bring lots of sunshine, but spending large amounts of time in it could lead to sunburn or sunstroke.
The obvious thing to do will be to use lots of sun cream, wear a hat and head inside after a while, but this relies on personal awareness, which may not be a reliable assumption to apply to those who are in the early stages of cognitive decline or who might simply doze off.
A better solution is to create areas of shade in which to sit, enjoying warmth without being frazzled in the heat. This could be achieved by putting seating below a tree with good leaf cover, or fitting an awning to the wall. Alternatively, a gazebo may help.
Outdoor lighting has become an increasingly common feature of modern gardens, using solar power to charge them up in the day and light sensors to switch them on at night. These can add plenty of illumination to a garden.
Of course, in the middle of summer, the daylight will linger to the point where the lights won’t be needed much, especially in the north. But as the days start to get shorter again from late summer onwards, they will ensure the garden is never too dark to see in.
Why Does Garden Fence Safety Matter?
These are all basic considerations for each garden, but there are more that could be applied in particular instances, depending on what features the garden already has in place.
Fencing is a good case in point. There are laws concerning fences that have been updated in recent years and it is, of course, important to remember that when these are party fences, which mean they form property boundaries, both householders are responsible for them.
Nonetheless, in such circumstances, it may be useful to liaise with neighbours if work needs to be done on them to make them safe. For instance, a rotting or unstable fence may break if leaned on, which poses an obvious risk to anyone, but more so to a frail, elderly person.
It is also important to check for general trip hazards around the garden, while if there is a lawn, keeping this mowed is important, both to keep things neat and tidy and to prevent this from being an unsafe or uneven place to walk.
A general garden tidy-up can also make sure there are no loose items left around, such as bricks, stones, or glass, while any drainage issues should also be attended to.
Why Is Tackling Water Hazards Essential?
Finally, it is important to consider any water features that exist in a garden. Having a pond can be great, but it may be high-maintenance, especially in dry spells when it may need more water, and it poses an obvious hazard to anyone who may slip or fall into it.
Whether this is a major danger could depend on its size and also its location; for example, if it is at the far end of the garden, it may be a thing an older person does not visit much, but may have a great appeal to their grandchildren, who can enjoy spotting pond life.
Therefore, if the pond is to be retained, a safety gate may be a useful feature.
All of these issues are matters that our home carers can help to look after, which will help to ensure that a garden that may have provided an elderly resident with a wonderful place of recreation, creativity, rest and peacefulness can continue to fulfil that role in safety.
