| Many family members feel that a deadbolt on the | | | | just because they have aged a bit over the |
| front door of their parent's home will take care of | | | | years, it does not mean that they can not make |
| any elder care safety issues that might harm | | | | the right decisions. They made bad judgments on |
| them. There are other safety issues that family | | | | people when they were young and vibrant and will |
| members never stop to consider and those | | | | most likely make some bad decisions in their elder |
| considerations include what their parent's state of | | | | years too. The elder care safety issues on |
| mind is, the structural soundness of the building | | | | trusting others should not go unobserved by |
| that they are living in, and the quality of the | | | | children and they should feel comfortable in |
| company that they keep. | | | | expressing concerns. |
| The children of the elderly naturally assume that | | | | Some elder care safety issues surface when |
| their parent's are quite capable of making sound | | | | elderly people continue to drive automobiles when |
| decisions and can take care of themselves. They | | | | they have reduced vision or need a hearing aid. |
| may not realize that their parents have reached | | | | These are some of the bad decisions that the |
| the age of regression and that they are now in | | | | elderly might make and are ones that could cost |
| need of someone to take care of their needs for | | | | them their lives in a very painful fashion. The |
| a while. They might not be conscious about | | | | children of the elderly should routinely ask their |
| structural changes in the building where they live | | | | parents to drive them somewhere so that they |
| and may need someone to call a repairman | | | | can judge how well their driving skills still are |
| before an accident occurs. | | | | without giving the elderly any cause to be |
| These are just elder care safety issues and are | | | | concerned. |
| not meant to be confused with elder care | | | | There are definitely elder care safety issues to be |
| inefficiencies that say they are incapable of living | | | | addressed if a family member is confined to a |
| on their own. If the children of elderly parents | | | | nursing home or assisted care facility. There are |
| would simply take the viewpoint of being a | | | | many opportunities for the elderly to be abused |
| second set of eyes for someone whose eyesight | | | | and when children make regular visits to check on |
| has dimmed a bit, then there should be no elder | | | | the health and safety status of their loved one, it |
| care safety issues that slip by unnoticed. | | | | will be far easier to recognize the tell-tale signs |
| Many elderly people feel that they have been able | | | | that their parent has been abused since the last |
| to make their own decisions for a long time, and | | | | visit. |