Healthy Living

Preparing for the First Parkinson's Disease Fall

Prepping Your Home

It’s important that your home is as prepared as you can make it to help mitigate the possibility of a fall. Working closely with your occupational or rehabilitation specialist can give you a better idea of some of that ways that you can make your home Parkinson's safe. There should be a phone close at hand at all times, if using a mobile phone have it on your person always and stationary phones should be placed in all rooms of the house within easy access.

Grab bars or handrails  should not only be placed in bathtubs, but in any part of the home where the patient may not have anything to hold on to. This includes walkways, stairwells and rooms such as the kitchen. Hardwood floors are preferable to carpeting or rugs to lower the risk of tripping over raised bumps in them, secure electronics cords to the flooring with duct tape to avoid tripping as well. Try to place furniture in rooms that the patient frequents in such a way that they have wide walkways so that if a fall does happen, it’s not further complicated by falling into hard furniture.