11 minute read
for better aging
STIR UP YOUR HOME FOR BETTER AGING
By Marie Bradby
You’ve been in your home for 25 plus years and want to age in your place. You might have arthritic hands or vision problems, but you are still kicking it. You’re still active and engaged in the community.
In order to continue to stay put, you will need some updating to improve the safety and function of your home. While it will be fun picking out new fixtures and decor, your priority should be on improving your home’s safety.
“The goal is to create an environment that will foster a sense of safety and well being,” says Joan Waddell, certified interior designer and principal of her firm, J. Waddell Interiors. “It’s important to address the whole person, not just their physical health — their capabilities and limitations — but their mental health as well.”
A designer who is familiar with design codes can perform a safety scan of your home. You may have doorways that are too narrow for a walker, counters that are too low, lighting that is too dim, or flooring that is slippery.
“Your limitations might be more pronounced as you get older,” Joan says. “So you want to retro fit so that you are taking care of problems that may crop up 10 years from now. That will determine if you can stay in your home for 5 or 10 or 20 more years.”
There are a number of basic design changes that you can tackle, such as changing out kitchen cabinet knobs for D-shaped handles, which are easier on arthritic hands, or replacing flick light switches with paddle switches.
But with the bathroom potentially containing the most hazards, Joan says, “I would address the bathroom first, and in doing so I would be prepared to totally renovate it,” Joan says. “If it requires tearing it out to create a safer zone, it’s important to do that.”
By the time you tear out the slippery tile floors, put in a comfort-height toilet, install a higher-height vanity, replace the tub with a curbless shower, add safety bars, widen the doorway for wheelchair access, change lighting fixtures, and switch out faucet knobs for faucet levers, you’ve done a full renovation, she says.
“This is a huge topic in my industry,” Joan says. "We take continuing education classes on this all the time.”
Adaptations for your Home as You Age
Here are some changes that can make your home safer and more stylish and have a significant impact on your quality of life. These suggestions can be applied throughout all the rooms of your home:
• Lighting — Especially in the kitchen, lighting adjustments will make a world of difference. Add under-cabinet task lighting to make it easier to see as you prepare meals. Add recessed lighting for overall lighting and to eliminate shadows. Remove your old overhead light and replace it with an attractive new fixture that puts out more light.
Throughout the house, change bulbs from incandescent to LED for brighter light. For your reading corner and your crafting nook, add stylish table and floor lamps. • Hardware — Round pull knobs on cabinets and drawers throughout the house can be difficult for arthritic hands to handle. Replace them with wide D-shaped drawer pulls. Switch out faucets with knobs and install faucets that have levers. • Non-slip flooring — Wood floors and vinyl floors have a certain amount of grip and are easier to push a walker over and easier to clean. Low pile, flat carpet has grip, too, is easier on the joints, and provides some cushion if you do fall. You can push a walker or wheelchair over flat carpet. • Doors — Round door knobs require that you tightly grasp and twist in order to open a door. Replace them with levers, which require only that you push down to open a door. You can even use your elbow to push down the lever. You can put door knob grips on round door knobs for more traction, as a temporary fix. • Narrow Doorways — In older homes, doorways often are too narrow to provide access for a walker or wheelchair.
You have a few options: • ‘Swing clear' hinges allow the door to swing completely out of the door opening. In some cases, this can add a couple inches of badly needed clearance. • You can remove interior doors entirely.
You can even remove the hinges and trim and put up drywall. • If you have enough room, you can make the opening larger and install a new, wider door with a pre-hung jam. • Take a good look at your sliding door, too. Sliding doors sometimes don’t work properly on their tracks, and the tracks also accumulate dirt and can be a tripping hazard. Consider removing your sliding doors and replacing them with a pair of
French doors.
CAREGIVER GUIDE
SENIORS ARE EVALUATING THEIR CURRENT LIVING CIRCUMSTANCES, ASKING MORE QUESTIONS, AND THINKING DIFFERENTLY ABOUT FUTURE PLANNING.”
— Kathy Embry, Sales Director, The Forum at Brookside
By Carrie Vittitoe | Promotion
THE FORUM AT BROOKSIDE | We may be tired of thinking and talking about COVID-19, but it has changed our lives dramatically in a few short months even if we haven’t been directly impacted by the virus. Some seniors and their families have looked at the pandemic as a wake-up call. The Forum at Brookside Sales Director Kathy Embry has seen numerous new faces become part of the community in recent months. “Many seniors are realizing that living in a senior living community can bring peace of mind for them and their adult children,” she says. This year’s public health situation has made seniors and their families consider what happens when life doesn’t go well or as planned. Older adults often spend years pondering whether to make the move to senior living, and they frequently develop a relationship with a community long before they make any firm decisions. Kathy keeps in contact with potential residents by mail and phone, and during the spring and height of quarantine, her connection helped relieve some anxiety and loneliness for seniors who were fully isolated. For some of them, this compassionate care offered to them even before they moved in showed them that The Forum is the place for them to be. “Our goal is to keep our residents as independent as possible for as long as possible, by surrounding them with support systems in place,” Kathy says. The Forum offers numerous options for seniors to meet their needs: independent living apartments, patio villa homes, personal care, skilled care, and rehabilitation. Families, especially those who live out of town, know that their senior loved ones will have nutritious meals prepared for them as well as transportation to physicians and errands.
The 40 acres of park-like green space at The Forum have been used more than ever before. Not only have seniors been able to visit their loved ones on the lush grounds for Sunshine Visits, they’ve even been able to have some equine friends visit, which was so popular and fun that staff asked
riders and their horses to visit a second time. One of the many lessons of 2020 has been to relish something as simple as petting a mare on its nose.
Although life seemed to slow down in some ways this year, residents at The Forum have been able to stay occupied. The monthly calendar is chock full of activities that keep seniors mentally and socially engaged while staying physically distanced. Book lovers find lots to discuss each week in the book club, while individuals who enjoy learning about new topics find the weekly lecture series, Brookside U, fascinating. Kathy says a drama guild is in the works, as well. The Forum offers multiple exercise classes three times a week to ensure bodies stay flexible and strong as well, and there is also an indoor heated
“The Road Apple Gang” visited The Forum at Brookside in early summer. It is a group of riders who volunteer to go to different facilities and share their horses with residents via a horse parade. They rode throughout the campus for two hours, giving residents like Duane and Anne Murner
(pictured, above right) the
opportunity to not only see their horses but to get up close and personal with them.
pool where residents can swim. Forum staff work hard to ensure the calendar stays full to keep everyone’s spirits up. “Lifting quarantine and isolation
restrictions have allowed us to begin offering some small group activities and programs,” Kathy says.
Al and Myra Early have been residents of The Forum for close to five years and during a difficult 2020 have found it so helpful to have friends nearby. “We’ve found so many friends here, and that’s really the key,” Al says. The Earlys love the mature trees and creek system that runs through The Forum campus and get a special delight from watching the squirrels and the small deer population that calls the campus its home. The Earlys walk around the campus and enjoy its beauty several times a day when the weather is comfortable.
The Forum takes pride in offering extraordinary care during extraordinary times.
CAREGIVER GUIDE
MEETING THEIR NEEDS WHERE THEY ARE IS SO MUCH OF A FOCUS FOR US, BUT ADDING THE EXTRA LAYER OF TECHNOLOGY ON TOP OF THAT, IT’S GOING TO TURN AN ALREADY OUTSTANDING FACILITY TO AN UNMATCHED FACILITY.
— Roberta Steutermann, Director of Development, Nazareth Home By Carrie Vittitoe | Promotion
NAZARETH HOME | Nazareth Home has a mission-based, person-centered focus in all it does. In providing care to elders at its two campuses, administrators and staff utilize a variety of tools to ensure residents are having all of their needs met, whether those needs are physical, emotional, social, or spiritual.
Technology has become increasingly necessary in 2020 because of social distancing and quarantining, and Nazareth Home has used it to foster connections between elders and their loved ones. However, a new virtual reality tool from Embodied Labs, which Nazareth Home was able to acquire as a result of a grant from the Sisters of Charity of Nazareth, has the potential to enhance compassionate care among its nurses and caregivers.
The virtual reality training tool and software, which includes goggles and headphones, puts the caregiver into the experience of a person with Alzheimer’s disease, Lewy Body dementia, or at the end of life. “I had the opportunity last year to do the Alzheimer’s virtual reality session. As somebody who has been the caregiver for someone with Alzheimer’s, it was an amazing experience,” says Nazareth Home Director of Development Roberta Steutermann. The technology helps caregivers understand the surreal and often frustrating experience of someone with Alzheimer’s disease. “It really puts you in the moment of how uncomfortable, upsetting, and confusing this is for the person,” she says.
Although Nazareth Home staff already excel in offering compassionate care, the technology will be used as an additional training tool “to give them that added level of connection and empathy as they are dealing with our elders,” Roberta says. The hope is that once COVID-19 has abated, Nazareth Home can allow residents’ families and loved ones to use the technology so that they can better
Photos by Melissa Donald
understand what the elders experience. Through technology, Nazareth Home is giving staff the opportunity to walk in another person’s shoes.
While Nazareth Home embraces technology to improve care, staff never forget the elders’ psychological and spiritual needs. Roberta says the pastoral care team is always providing prayer and ritual to elders at all times but especially as their lives near an end. In fact, staff is able to use technology in the form of the iN2L program to help elders tell their life stories as a way to pass on their legacies and provide a cherished gift to families once their loved one has passed on. The videos, enhanced with photos and music, offer elders a way to reflect on their lives and pass along their experiences and stories to loved ones in a format that can
Nazareth Home uses iN2L technology in a variety of ways, including helping residents explore the world through a large-screen tv, a smaller mobile screen, or android pads. “It is not virtual reality but is allowing our elders to travel the globe right now,” Roberta says. “They’ve been to Paris, and they’re going to Australia this week.”
be accessed and remembered. While families may have already heard these stories, having them documented and saved is a tremendous gift during the grieving process.
HIGHLANDS | 2000 Newburg Rd | Louisville, KY | 502.459.9681 | nazhome.org CLIFTON | 2120 Payne St | Louisville, KY | 502.895.9425 | nazhome.org
When it comes to spirituality, while Nazareth Home was founded by the Sisters of Charity of Nazareth, a Catholic organization, Roberta says all faiths are embraced on both campuses. “Catholicism is not the only experience here,” she says. Residents enjoy learning something new about other faiths from their fellow residents. Whether elders are Jewish, Christian, Muslim, or any other faith, their shared reverence for the spiritual lifts everyone.
Church services are held as often as safely possible given the pandemic, and when elders aren’t able to gather in person, service is live-streamed. Residents say the rosary daily. At Nazareth Home, spirituality is a very intentional part of every day.
