Five Kitchen Safety Tools Your Senior Needs

Part of helping your senior to remain as independent as possible involves helping her to be as safe as she can be in her kitchen. As her caregiver, here are some safety changes you can make that help.

An Organized Kitchen

The best way to make your senior’s kitchen safe quickly is to rearrange it. That might sound backward, but if your elderly family member has to get up on a stepstool or maneuver around something to get to items she uses often, that opens her up to possible injury. Rearranging the kitchen so that items she uses all the time are readily accessible is a key to safety.

Seating at Different Heights

Your senior may have need to sit while she’s doing things like cooking at her stove or chopping ingredients. Those two activities may require different seating heights to accommodate her needs. It may be helpful to have either adjustable stools or multiple types of seating so that she can easily and safely do what she needs to do.

Kitchen Tools that Adapt to Her Needs

Adaptable kitchen utensils are also really important. Knives and other kitchen tools with wide, easy-grip handles can help her to continue to do what she wants to do, even if arthritis makes her grip strength weaker. Other tools can help in a variety of ways. Automatic shut-off timers for the stove might be something that she needs, for instance. Do a bit of digging to find out what other tools are out there.

Smoke Alarms and Fire Extinguishers

Fire is a big problem in every kitchen. Having working smoke alarms and fire extinguishers is really important. Change the batteries in smoke alarms every six months and test them at the same time. Fire extinguishers that are small and easy for someone to use even with limited strength are available. Get one and put it in a location that’s easy to get to in an emergency.

Contrasts that Help Her to See

When your senior is able to see borders and shifts, that helps her to avoid injuries and other issues. Contrasts help with that. Do what you can to naturally create contrasts in your senior’s kitchen so that she doesn’t have as much trouble spotting edges.

Your senior may still be able to do a lot in her own kitchen, especially if you’ve helped her to have the tools she needs to be as safe as possible.

If you or an aging loved one is considering caregivers in Edison, NJ, please contact the caring staff at Care Street Home Care today. Call (732) 607-8870.

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Care Street Home Care Staff

Care Street Home Health Care LLC is a division of Ocean Healthcare, a network of New Jersey-based healthcare centers and services founded in 1973 by Melvin and Debbie Feigenbaum. Melvin and Debbie both came from warm, close-knit backgrounds that emphasize the centrality of family. The values of respect, responsibility, and dignity run deep in the Feigenbaum family; they share a strong sensitivity to the importance of caring for others, particularly the elderly and disabled.

The Care Street mission is straightforward and compelling: to provide a comprehensive range of the highest quality home health services in a professional and efficient manner that will enhance our clients' quality of life and empower families to keep their loved one at home.

Care Street has earned a reputation of excellence among hundreds of families, and is recommended by medical professionals and hospital discharge planners throughout the State.

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