Home Security to Help People with Dementia

A dis­ease like demen­tia makes it hard for those who suf­fer from it to func­tion as they once did. Demen­tia wreaks hav­oc on a person’s mem­o­ry, turn­ing their famil­iar sur­round­ings into the unknown. Unfor­tu­nate­ly, a dis­ease like demen­tia can cre­ate dis­ori­en­ta­tion and con­fu­sion to those who are plagued by it. Besides mem­o­ry loss and con­fu­sion, wan­der­ing is one of the most com­mon side effects of demen­tia.

How­ev­er, with the prop­er home secu­ri­ty mea­sures in place, you can save your loved one from becom­ing seri­ous­ly injured and wan­der­ing into a dan­ger­ous sit­u­a­tion.

The fol­low­ing home secu­ri­ty mea­sures are ide­al for some­one who suf­fers from demen­tia:

• Install a door chime:
  This sim­ple device is usu­al­ly mag­net­ic and makes a sound when the door is opened. Some­times indi­vid­u­als with demen­tia may open their doors and for­get why they’ve done so. They may even leave the door open and for­get about it, leav­ing their home vul­ner­a­ble to theft. The chime will remind them that the door is ajar. Some secu­ri­ty sys­tems will even allow you to receive a text when the door chime goes off at cer­tain times of the night to inform you that your loved one has left the door open.

These are also help­ful tools for the fam­i­lies of those with demen­tia. Hear­ing the door chime will noti­fy fam­i­ly mem­bers that some­one has opened it, giv­ing them the oppor­tu­ni­ty to stop the per­son who opened it before they have the oppor­tu­ni­ty to get too far.

• Night­lights are key:
  These are not to be con­fused with the plug-in options that bright­en a child’s bed­room; these are high-tech sys­tems that keep wan­der­ers safe. Putting in assis­tive light­ing or auto­mat­ed illu­mi­na­tion in and around your loved one’s home is a great way to reduce the risk of injury if they go wan­der­ing. Opt for motion-sen­si­tive light­ing that turns on when some­one enters a room.

• Con­sid­er the locks:
  This does not mean you should change the locks in your loved one’s home so that they can nev­er leave, but instead, have them moved to a high­er or low­er posi­tion on the door. If your loved one has to bend down or stand on their tip­py-toes to reach the door lock, they will have a hard­er time open­ing doors. This small amount of extra effort gives them enough time to stop and think about why they’re try­ing to open the door, often giv­ing them­selves time to real­ize they have no rea­son to leave, and instead decid­ing to stay inside the safe­ty of the house. Sim­ply put, keep­ing locks out of eye­sight leads to less chance they will wan­der out­side of their home.

Before you install any new secu­ri­ty sys­tems in the home of some­one with demen­tia, explain to them how it will help them. Your loved one will appre­ci­ate the care that goes into pro­tect­ing them from injury.