Written by Mike Price, OT
Fall prevention is an exceptionally important step to take for anyone who is at risk of a fall. Even if your risk is relatively low, creating a fall-proof environment can help save you from dangerous accidents and injuries.
Fortunately, making your home safer and more mobility-friendly is fairly easy and involves very little cost, so there’s no excuse to live in an unsafe home!
To help you and your loved ones live safer, happier lives, we've collected our eight best tips on how to fall-proof home, gathered through our collective eighty years of experience working in healthcare and therapeutic environments.
Ensuring that walkways in your home are clear and free of excess clutter ensures that you can more easily maneuver around. Getting rid of bulky furniture that sticks out into the thoroughfare, and moving toys or other clutter out of the way can significantly reduce the trip hazards in your home.
Make sure that all areas of your home are adequately lit to ensure clear visibility. Consider adding nightlights, floor lamps, or other lighting sources for areas that aren’t clearly lit.
Additionally, adding task lamps to areas where you frequently work on business or hobbies can help not only improve your ability to work, but also your ability to maneuver around your workspace.
Make sure cracked tiles or floorboards are removed or repaired, and that cords and other similar trip hazards are appropriately secured away from walkways. Consider re-working rooms so that cords and similar items don’t need to run underfoot, helping to improve safety and easy mobility.
Slippery throw rugs are one of the most common causes of household falls. Consider removing throws entirely or ensuring they remain firmly in place with double-sided furniture/carpet tape. This goes double for areas with slippery floorings like the bathroom and kitchen, or when rugs are used to camouflage thresholds, or divisions between flooring or rooms. These hidden thresholds can pose a huge trip hazard, and are best left uncovered if not removed altogether or more safely smoothed over with something like a threshold ramp.
Whether in the bathroom or along the stairs, railings can provide much-needed support for more challenging maneuvering tasks like getting up and down from the toilet, out of the shower, up and down from chairs, in and out of bed. Installing proper rails and grab bars can help reduce falls in the bathroom by providing the stability users need to catch themselves before falling.
For the bedroom, assist rails and bed rails provide the same stability while also offering a variety of convenient accessories like storage options, adjustability, and swiveling grab bars. Similarly, lift chairs provide excellent assistance for users who have difficulty getting up once they've sat down, providing that extra oomph you need to get up.
Keeping your most-used items close by helps to ensure that you can stay in place without having to get up and down or stretch dangerously to reach something. Tactics like choosing a cordless phone that you keep near your bed or couch, and finding convenient and accessible storage solutions for your remote or reading glasses can mean the difference between safety and a potential fall.
The bathroom is the most dangerous room in the house due to its hard surfaces and increased presence of moisture. Because of this, consider adding non-slip traction strips or mats in your bathroom, kitchen, and even in your doorways to combat water, mud, and ice that may pose a potential fall risk.
Finally, don’t rush. Moving calmly and deliberately is an excellent way to make sure you don’t fall. Don’t feel the need to push yourself faster than you can safely move - take deliberate steps, paying attention to your body and your surroundings and you’ll be much less likely to fall.
For more information about fall prevention and the best ways you can keep yourself and your loved ones safe, you can read our:
And, if you're looking for some excellent tools to help you avoid falls and other accidents both in your home and in medical facilities, check out Rehabmart's full catalog of fall prevention tools.
Co-Founder of Rehabmart and an Occupational Therapist since 1993. Mike has spent his professional career working in multiple areas of Occupational Therapy, including pediatrics, geriatrics, hand therapy, ergonomics and inpatient / outpatient rehabilitation. Mike enjoys writing articles that help people solve complex therapeutic problems and make better product choices.
