5 Aids for Daily Living for Your Aging Parent
If your parent has reached a certain age where everyday living becomes something of a challenge, but you know a nursing home is not yet needed, you might consider some daily living aids. Simple devices you install around the home can make their everyday life much easier and even reduce physical problems they experience, while keeping them safer and more comfortable at home. Note a few of these basic yet brilliant aids for daily living that you may not even realize exist, and which can be a tremendous help to your parent.
1. Big lamp switch
Lamp switches are so tiny and cumbersome that many people have trouble with them, but especially those who have arthritis. A big lamp switch is like an oversized rubber triangle that slides over the smaller switch so that it's easier to grip and turn with fumbling fingers, joint pain, or muscle weakness in the hands and arms.
2. Flatware grips
Your parent may have a hard time holding their knife and fork in arthritic fingers, so oversized rubber grips that slide over the handle can keep them steady and secure. The rubber provides some grip and the rounded design means not having to close up your fingers quite so much to hold the pieces, allowing your parent to easily eat on their own.
3. Large button TV remotes
Even those without arthritis or vision problems may struggle to reach those tiny buttons on a remote control for the TV. Since many of the buttons on a standard remote are rarely used anyway, a large button remote with just a few essential controls can allow your parent to watch television easily.
4. Socks and stockings gripper
Trying to slide socks or stockings over feet and pull them into place can be very difficult for someone with arthritis in the hands, knees, back, and feet. A gripper holds the sock or stocking in place and extends to reach over the foot so there is less need to grip with the fingers, less stooping over, and less bending of the knee to get those socks and stockings on every day.
5. Dishes with suction cups
A parent with Parkinson's disease or another condition that causes tremors may find that their dishes get pushed around at mealtimes as they try to reach for them, and this can cause mess and embarrassment. Plastic or rubber dishes with suction cups at the bottom can keep them in place and allow your parent to enjoy a meal without this struggle.
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