According to the World Health Organization, falls cause around 646,000 fatalities globally every year, making it the second most common cause of unintentional and/or accidental fatalities due to injuries worldwide. Its most common victims tend to be adults that are beyond 65, and 37.3 million others experience falls that, while aren’t fatal, are severe enough to have them taken to the emergency room or provided some form of medical attention. Given how slips, trips, and falls can actually arise from situations that are ordinarily created, it’s quite alarming that even the home is prone to slips and falls. This doesn’t mean however that the home is perfectly unsafe and unprotected from slips, trips, and falls. Here’s a few home safety tips on how to make your home safer and slip-free:
Remember to exercise good housekeeping. When your parents asked you to do chores before, not only are these used to instil discipline in you, but to also make sure you know how to make the house spick and span on all corners. Your familiarity with your home can be of great assistance when it comes to determining how you can boost its safety when it comes to slips and falls prevention. Good housekeeping includes:
Replace broken equipment. Replace faulty switches, light bulbs, and everything that can cause explosions, scatter debris, and dampen the light in hallways that would otherwise help others see.
- Make sure drawers and cabinets are always closed, carpets, rugs, and mats are always flat, and debris is swept and mopped. This ensures that there are no objects that can be intrusive and cause trips to happen.
- Make sure wet areas are marked and all spills are cleaned, which helps ensure you’re adequately pursuing measures to protect the household from slips.
Remember to see if you can make adjustments to your flooring. Sometimes, an efficient way to ensure your house is well-protected against slips and falls is if its flooring is actually modified or changed to prevent these situations in the first place. For instance, replacing floors or recoating them, installing abrasive strips or mats, or even using synthetic or metal decking can create a great deal of assistance as to ensuring your home is at least equipped to avoid slips and falls.
Remember that changing your footwear also works. Yes, shoes actually matter even at home. If you know certain parts of the home will be wet such as the kitchen and the bathroom, do try to wear footwear that you can be comfortable navigating properly in. You may try consulting manufacturers as to what sort of shoes you should look for if you’re aiming to avoid slips and trips.
Remember that your movement matters a lot. The way you move around the house helps a great deal in avoiding situations of slipping and tripping. Make sure you take your steps closely, and you grab assistance whenever it’s available to ensure you’re always holding onto something safe. When something’s wet, or if you’ve just recently cleaned something, make sure you properly move relevant signages or create something to announce that certain parts of the house are cleaned.
Conclusion
The steps above are just some of the tips you could use for home safety and on how to make your home safer from slips and falls. While these tend to be steps that seem simple at first glance, developing a habit out of them can help you formulate better plans that are adequate for your home setup, and teaching these to your family can create a healthy atmosphere built on safety. Click here to learn about the legal aspects of the matter at hand.