When it comes to care homes, it’s important to ensure that we create a pleasant environment that respects the dignity and freedom of the elderly living there.
However, it’s equally important to make sure their safety and health is not only prioritised but also managed effectively. For that, it’s essential to create a safe environment for the elderly residents to keep them safe from injury or accident.
That said, at Doorway Services, we have compiled a list of 4 safety measures that you should implement in a care home.
Let’s take a look!
1. Analyse the Roles and Responsibilities of Your Team
In order to create a safe environment for the elderly residents of your care home, it’s important that you work as a team.
That said, begin with evaluating and delegating roles and responsibilities to your team members. In doing so, you can ensure that your care workers know what their responsibilities are in case of an emergency. It will also help the residents know who they’re supposed to seek help from.
What’s more, clearly assigning roles will provide the care workers a sense of accountability while dealing with various health and safety issues.
2. Discuss Any Existing Safety Concerns
When it comes to the health and safety of your residents, it’s important that you discuss the existing issues with your team. Moreover, ensure that you’re not only coming up with a solution to fix issues but also implementing it as soon as possible.
It doesn’t matter whether it’s the movement of heavy-duty equipment or cracked flooring, anything that puts your facility’s residents at risk is to be considered hazardous.
Therefore, it’s crucial that you run safety and security checks every now and then, and get them fixed before it results in a serious accident or injury to the people living in your care home.
3. Assess and Control Your Security Risks
When creating a safe environment for the elderly, don’t forget to run physical checks of your premise.
Identify any security risks and see if you’re doing enough to prevent them from causing problems for the residents. For instance, if you think the current flooring could cause accidents like falls and slips, then work to fix this as soon as you’re able to. Similarly, if you feel installing automatic sliding doors in your premise could help prevent residents from getting lost while also protecting the care home from potential break-ins then, by all means, do it.
The bottom line is to make sure you’re eliminating as many risks as possible – after all, the safety of the elderly is your priority.
4. Provide Proper Equipment and Training to Your Staff
Last but not least, you need to provide your care workers with the right training and equipment. This is because only when they know how to use the equipment properly will they be able to ensure that they aren’t putting their own or other people’s lives at risk.
The two most important things that you need to pay attention to are:
- Offering proper and complete training to your staff whenever new equipment or policies are implemented.
- Providing your care workers with a proper uniform and protective gears to reduce the possibility of falls, slips and trips.
To learn more about the benefits of providing the right training, click here!
Additional Tips to Create a Safe Environment for the Elderly Within Your Care Home
While it’s crucial for you to implement the safety precautions mentioned above, here are a few more things you could do:
- Avoid rugs that can be considered a slip hazard
- Get rid of electrical cords from walking areas
- Install fire doors in your care home
- Ensure that all your stairs and their rails are sturdy
- Keep your floors free of clutter to prevent trips and falls
- Install a medical alert system wherever possible
Contact Doorway Services to Install Automatic Sliding Doors
The health and safety of the seniors living in your care home is absolutely important. Without regular safety checks, however, you won’t be able to create a safe environment for them.
Implement these steps right away and amp up the safety in your premise.
While you’re at it, why not start with installing automatic doors wherever possible?
For more information, give us a call or drop us an email at service@doorwayservices.org today!
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