Tips to make your home a dementia friendly space
Whether you’re a caregiver or a family member, these five practical tips offer straightforward strategies to adapt your space to the evolving needs of your loved ones.
Top 5 Tips to Make Your Home More Dementia-Friendly
1. Assess Trip Hazards in Your Home
Alzheimer’s and dementia can affect visual-spatial abilities, impairing coordination and balance. To help prevent falls, remove obstacles by securing loose carpet corners, choosing safe flooring and furniture, and illuminating darker areas with lamps, LED lights, or plug-in nightlights. Adding a security light for the entrance or garden and storing decorative items out of reach can further enhance safety.
2. Highlight Photos of Family, Friends, and Loved Ones
A familiar environment can ease confusion and memory lapses. Research shows that displaying physical objects, such as photographs, can stimulate cognition even in later stages of dementia. Keep framed photos in prominent places around your home to spark memories and encourage conversation.
3. Label Your Cupboards and Drawers
For those in the early stages of dementia, simple kitchen adaptations can make a big difference. Use color-coded labels on food containers, drawers, and utensils to provide clear visual prompts. As symptoms progress and kitchen use becomes less safe, a care professional can step in to manage tasks like washing up and preparing meals.
4. Update Your Kitchen for Safety and Inclusion
Ensure your kitchen is both safe and inviting by incorporating comfortable, secure seating. This allows individuals living with dementia to participate in meal preparation and enjoy the social aspects of cooking without compromising their safety.
5. Adapt to Evolving Visual Needs
Navigating stairs and hallways can become challenging if dementia affects mobility or depth perception. Consider replacing patterned carpets with plainer options to reduce confusion, and increase lighting in dark areas—especially on landings and hallways—with plug-in nightlights. For added convenience, some families opt to relocate the bedroom to the ground floor.
Dementia & Alzheimer’s Care: We Understand!
When someone you love is living with Dementia, including Alzheimer’s disease, vascular dementia, Lewy body dementia, frontotemporal dementia and mixed dementia, it can be a very upsetting time.
Helping someone you love to cope with the challenges that come with dementia and memory loss can be upsetting.
At Caremark Bath & North East Somerset we are here to offer Dementia & Alzheimer’s care support, advise and reassurance. Our professional and fully trained Care Assistants have plenty of knowledge and experience to share. They come armed with skills to make customers feel calm and at ease as well as reassuring family members too.
