For many older adults, everyday features like steep stairs, conventional bathtubs, uneven flooring, and hard-to-reach cupboards can present a challenge, especially if they are experiencing changes to their mobility or frailty when transitioning from sitting or lying position itself can be difficult.
Alongside dedicated elderly care support, we commonly recommend looking into home adaptations, many of which can be funded or subsidised. This ensures that a care recipient can remain comfy and well in a familiar environment, with a few changes to ensure they can get around and manage tasks far more easily.
The Types of Home Adaptations That Can Be Valuable for Elderly People
It’s important to clarify that not every care recipient or older adult will require any adaptations to their home. The exact changes, devices, or mobility aids they need will depend wholly on their care needs, wishes, and personal preferences.
This is why it’s always advisable to ensure a loved one is involved in these discussions and given autonomy to decide which adaptations they might be happy with, those they would find genuinely beneficial, and those they do not want.
With this in mind, the below are all frequently recommended following a home assessment and can be transformative for people who feel confined to certain floors or parts of their homes or who worry about falls or slips and what to do if they become unwell.
- Bathroom and hygiene aids: Grab rails around toilets, baths and showers, electric lifts, tap extensions and wheeled shower chairs.
- Meal preparation and eating: Adapted utensils and appliances for kitchens, recliner chairs, chair risers and cushions that relieve pressure.
- Mobility support: Frames to help with standing and turning, walking assistance aids, ramps for wheelchair or mobility scooter users, and outdoor path rails.
- Sleeping and resting: Bed risers to lift the height of a bed, rails to prevent falls, slide sheets and hoists to help with transferring from a bed to standing, or mobility aids, some of which care professionals, or a live-in carer will need to help with.
- Emergency call devices: SOS pull tabs or personal alarms, fall detectors and emergency sensors.
- Safety: Automated lighting at access points and door-release intercoms, extensions to handrails and shallow steps over thresholds.
These options are all considered minor adaptations. They can usually be fitted or installed quickly, retrofitted to existing furniture or homes, and simplify everyday tasks, from cooking and bathing to getting to and from home—augmenting the difference that elderly care services can make.
Major Home Adaptations to Improve Safety and Comfort for Care Recipients
Elderly care enables people to remain in control of their care options, but if there are any more significant issues that pose a barrier to them being able to stay in their own homes, more extensive changes may be required.
This is often because an individual has more complex needs and relies on a live-in carer or visiting private carers or because they live in a period home, typically with narrower stairs and doorways and less accessible turning spaces.
As a few examples, major home adaptations might include:
- Changes to access, such as removing thresholds or steps, installing wheelchair lifts, widening door frames, or reconfiguring layouts to convert smaller rooms into open-plan living spaces.
- Levelling access to washing, bathing, and personal care areas, such as wet rooms and wheelchair-accessible showers or basins and bathrooms with wider doors.
- Hands-free appliances, devices and controls, such as easy-grip lighting and heating consoles or automated central heating that doesn’t require manual intervention.
Notably, some home improvements aren’t necessarily about tasks and mobility but ensure that an older person who wishes to remain at home is able to enjoy their space fully. For example, adding ramps or shallower steps to gardens makes areas that may have been inaccessible easier to use.
The Key Benefits of Adaptations for Adults Receiving Elderly Care at Home
Regardless of the extent of home adaptations you or a loved one might wish to make, the impacts can be profound. They can restore confidence, ensure a person can get around their own home, and boost feelings of safety and independence.
Either installing new features or removing barriers to accessibility augments independence, ensuring older people can perform more daily routines without requiring assistance. It also reduces the risks of accidents and injuries and mitigates any need to relocate from familiar surroundings, either to a one-level home or to a residential care facility or nursing home.
A study that analysed the real-world outcomes of home adaptations found that, when completed sensitively and based on the person’s needs and wishes, these resulted in a 93.4% drop in the perceived difficulty of daily tasks, a 9.8% improvement in quality of life, and a reduction of 12.5% in the risk of falling.
In short, adaptations ensure that a home you love but that isn’t designed for your needs is adjusted and offers a space where you can go about chores, hobbies, pastimes, and routines without difficulty.
Accessing Funding Towards Elderly Home Adaptations
On to the question of cost, and fortunately, many older adults are eligible for funding support, whether to cover the cost of the adaptations to their homes or to contribute towards the expense.
Local authorities conduct needs assessments to determine whether they can provide financial assistance, sometimes with a visit from an occupational therapist who can identify which changes would be most beneficial.
Some will offer free disability equipment and cover most minor adaptations, which are considered those that cost £1,000 or less. They won’t typically expect a contribution from you or your loved one if disability equipment or small adaptations are essential to help with daily living or care delivery.
There is also a Disabled Facilities Grant system, although this is means-tested, so the contributions available may depend on your personal circumstances. Local councils have six months to confirm whether or not they can assist, with a maximum grant value of £30,000 and higher funding at the discretion of the local authority.
Depending on your needs, and with the caveat that local authority care needs assessments can have long waiting times, this could be incredibly useful and ensure not only that your home is a safer, easier space to live but that you tap into support to streamline the process and help towards the costs.
If you’d like more information about adaptations, adjustments, or devices that would be beneficial for yourself or an elderly relative or to learn more about how changes to your home can safeguard your right to live independently, you are welcome to get in touch with your nearest Guardian Angel Carers branch to arrange a good time to chat with one of our friendly team members.