Creating a Safe Living Space for Your Loved One with Mark Wilson

Mark Wilson is back with co-hosts, Virginia and Steve to share his tips on outfitting your loved one's home to be safe.  He reflects on his experience caring for his mom  who lived at home with him for the entirety of her Alzheimer's dementia journey.  Mark provides low cost solutions to many of the unique challenges that caregivers face in a home environment like protecting against hard slippery surfaces in the bathroom or curtailing wandering at night .  

Transcript

Steve O’Leary  0:06  

From the University of California, Irvine, this is UCI MIND’s, Spotlight on Care, the podcast where we share stories, experiences, tips, and advice on caring for loved ones affected by Alzheimer's and other dementias.

Virginia Naeve  0:24  

Hello, and welcome to Spotlight on Care. I'm Virginia Naeve and I'm here with my co-host, Mr. Steve O'Leary. Today, we have a guest with us who knows a lot about setting up a home to be safe for someone with dementia. And before I introduce our guest, Steve and I usually like to make a comment or two about how we dealt with our own situations. Steve, do you remember any tips or helpful hints that you did in your home to make it safe for Patty?

Steve O’Leary  0:57  

Yeah, I didn't have to do a lot as it turns out, but then again, I moved towards, you know, a community care situation. So that made it a lot easier. But I did have the whole alcohol issue. And the piece of advice I would offer there is you know, we'd always have a glass of wine here and there. But it became a coping mechanism for Patty. And she would never done this before. But she basically would pour alcohol into sodas, she would buy little bottles of wine and hide them all over the house. So I finally just removed any alcohol from the house and quit drinking myself, at least around her and, and that was like, you know, a good thing for me, and certainly something that we had to do for her.

Virginia Naeve  1:42  

Interesting. Yeah, that that's a really good tip that can get out of control. I remember that with my mom, I thought it was interesting that I had a full-length mirror in her room and somebody came in one day and said, you know, you're you might have to remove that because people with dementia can become fearful while seeing their own reflection. They don't recognize themselves. And so I thought that was interesting. I never did have to remove it. But the idea was there in my head. And also, when I moved mom to her community, they told us to not put any knickknacks on side tables. Number one, she might decide to break one of them if she ever got upset or throw something at someone easy to pick up and just throw it someone. So I thought that was interesting. I never ended up having those problems. But it's kind of good to be aware. Anyway, our guest today is Mark Wilson, and he's been here with us before talking about how he kept his mom at home because that that was her wish she wanted to be at home. So, Mark has talked about his situation in his home before. And he has a lot of very good things to say to us today about making sure that the home is safe. It wasn't an easy task, but he made it work. Welcome, Mark. We're glad you're here.

Steve O’Leary  3:18 

Thanks for coming again, Mark.

Mark Wilson  3:20  

Thank you, Virginia. And Steve, I'm very excited to be here. Again, I really enjoyed the prior podcast I did with UCI on caregiving in general. And so you guys were kind enough to ask me back to go a little bit deeper on safety in the home. So I'm happy to do that.

Virginia Naeve  3:35  

I know that your mom was at home for her entire journey of Alzheimer's. And you did have to make some changes to your home to make sure that it was safe. And I want to ask you about specifics regarding the bathroom, the bedroom, the kitchen, and the house in general. And our listeners out there might not need to make all these changes immediately. But as your loved one progresses, it's good to kind of know about them and keep them in mind. Okay, so let's start with the bathroom. 

Mark Wilson  4:11 

Okay, I'm going to back up a little bit rather than starting with the bathroom and to give you just a little bit of context. I think some of you may know this, but why is safety so important for Alzheimer's patients? I mean it's for anybody and older folks and but particularly for Alzheimer's patients why because they begin to lose their physical walking ability and they start shuffling and a fall is devastating to anybody but specially you know Alzheimer's patients. Why? Because if you have to bring them to the hospital, the hospital can be so disorienting for anybody no less somebody who gets confused and doesn't know people strangers it can really be devastating and then God forbid you have to do a surgery. then you have anesthesia, which is not good for Alzheimer's patients in particular, because as many of you know, there's a very limited what the doctors called cognitive reserve. And so when there's anesthesia situation, there is not much to go on, and they really get, their disease advances exponentially with anesthesia. So you really want to protect them from any hospital visits, and surgery. And with the shuffling that Alzheimer's patients often do. The falling is a major, major risk. In addition, you know, things that we know are not safe Alzheimer's patients, because of the judgment and perception issues. They don't know that things like you know, biting things, eating things swallowing things they're not supposed to. So you really have to be extra careful in this realm. So that's why I think there's a lot here. And I didn't learn all these things, day one, but they're evolutionary, and learned as we go. So I'll give you kind of the range of things. But you may not, you know, need them day one, but you may over time. 

Virginia Naeve  6:00  

Exactly. 

Mark Wilson 6:01

And then just one kind of final sort of setup things. Even though these are all home care things. I think they're good lessons for even a facility. I mean, I was determined to keep my mom at home, for lots of reasons. But I think as many of you who can't for different reasons, let their you know, kind of folks come home, they you should look for these things in a facility. Because there are some facilities are really a plus on all these safety things. Some not so much. So as you consider places for your loved one to stay. You want to have a screen on some of these ideas. Anyway, even if you're not planning to keep your loved one at home. 

Virginia Naeve 6:40

Yeah, good point. Yeah, good point. 

Mark Wilson 6:41

All right. So let's see, let's start with the bathroom. That's a good place to start.

Virginia Naeve 6:45  

You told me that you thought that was the most dangerous room in the house

Mark Wilson 6:49

I think it's the most dangerous room in the house. And why is that? One is, most bathrooms are tile. And tile is very hard. And very slick. In general. And particularly bathrooms get wet. And wet and slippery, Bad combination, again, for anybody, but it the fall risk is very high. And also there's a lot of with, with patients, there's also a lot of change of direction, I mean, you think about your the toilet, then you have to change and you're moving. And so anytime there's a change of direction, there's a risk of fall. And so you have to be extra careful in the bathroom. So a few things that that I learned over time. One is, there's a real simple thing called a sort of over chair on the toilet, it's, it's kind of describe it, it's almost like a frame that goes on top of the toilet, and it lifts the person up, which makes it much easier to stand up. So anybody benefit from this who's probably, you know, more than 60 because toilets are very low, and they don't have any rails, knees have rails and you started using the regular toilet, you can push yourself up on the toilet, and you're higher up, which makes it easier to stand. And just the whole thing's easier. And they're inexpensive. I mean for $30 you can get a very sturdy one, easily anywhere. In addition, if you want to raise the person up a little bit more, there have very, you know, great cushions and toilet cushions that you can sort of put on top of it makes it a little bit higher, and even easier and softer on the person and easier to get. So those are, those are all really important. Another idea I would do in addition to the sort of toilet over chair is a rail. There's like safety rails that you can put very easily along the wall, or wherever the nearest wall is to the toilet. And easy again, inexpensive, you probably need a handyman to put it in. But you know, for $100 you can put in a rail next to the toilet, so that they can kind of grab onto it when they're transferring changing directions or need to hold on to it while you're you know, helping the person in some way or the helping themselves. They can grab on to it much, much safer. 

Virginia Naeve 9:06

Right? 

Mark Wilson 9:07

So those are those are important elements of sort of the toilet part of it. And I hate to be that basic but these are all like you know, big things to minimize the risk of falling. Let's see another sort of the next one to talk about is kind of bathing so bathing. Washing is also an important area. I think the most the best sort of washing vehicle as a stand in shower. You know when you can step into most of the lips on the stand and they're pretty low. If you have a high one, no? But most of them are like you know a couple flinches, they could person can probably lift their feet, even if they shuffle a bit with a little bit of help, possibly. But they go inside the shower. And then it's important to get a shower chair. And the shower chair is again, very inexpensive, it's a sturdy chair that goes in the shower is waterproof, it's got handles, you can help that person sit, take the shower, take the shower and, and they do it with a handheld shower, the nozzle coming out of the you know, the top of the shower doesn't work too well, because the person has to stand to get the water right. And you don't want to be standing in the shower, if you're unstable or shuffling.

Virginia Naeve 10:26

Right 

Mark Wilson 10:27

With most Alzheimer's patients beyond the viewer to have that problem. So I learned that that was really very, again, very easy to put in, you just, if your shower doesn't have that you just screw it in, you get to the hardware store for $25 or less. And then you've got control over the hand nozzle and you can they can shower themselves sitting down or you can help shower them. And you have a lot of control about where the water goes. You can even step into the shower and help them without getting wet. Because you're focusing on where the water is going. It's not just water going all over. 

Virginia Naeve 11:00

Yes. Less scary actually.

Mark Wilson  11:02 

Less scary. Absolutely. Yeah. So that's to me, that's like an easy thing. You just get to do the hand shower, sit in the shower. And it's a lot safer than standing up. And you can help them inside the shower very easily. So tub not good. And I didn't we didn't have like a walk in tubs as they advertise. I assume they're good but very expensive to put in. I mean, we're talking about probably four or $5,000 in some bathrooms are just not designed to put in a big walk in tub. So I'd stay away from trying to go over the giant tub, it's just too hard. So if you don't have a walk-in shower, then I would go with a sponge bath. That's what we did. Later when the shower was harder to have my mom go over the lip on the walk and shower. Just a sponge bath they can you can sit on a chair or on the toilet. And, you know wash washer with, you know, sponge water can even use like a spray bottle for washing the hair.

Virginia Naeve  12:00  

They can start to be afraid of a shower. 

Mark Wilson 12:02

Yes, yes, 

Virginia Naeve 12:04

They get to be afraid of water. Fortunately, it's a phase that usually passes. But sponge bath at that point is really necessary. And they so a lot of products now, you know, your local pharmacy that can help bathe somebody who's seated or even in a bed.

Mark Wilson 12:23  

Yeah, that's great idea. And it's really, it's really pretty easy to do. And you can get someone very clean, you know, with a sponge bath.

Steve O’Leary 12:31  

Mark, let me ask you a personal question. Well, how was it bathing your mother? I mean, was that? What did you have to overcome? Or she have to overcome with the idea that somehow roles had reversed?

Mark Wilson 12:44  

Right? Oh, yeah. No, that's a great question. I think in the beginning, it was awkward, more awkward for me that probably her because she knew she needed help. And, you know, she loves me as a mother, so it wasn't, I don't think it was a big deal for her. Oh, maybe it was and she didn't, you know, give an indication of it. But for me, it was a bit awkward at first. But again, it's like all this you know caregiving of someone you love it's more important that you do it right. And you take care of them then whatever feelings you know you have, but yeah, it was a little bit awkward at first for sure. 

Virginia Naeve 13:19

Just have to get over it. 

Mark Wilson 13:21

Yeah, yeah. And then I you know, in my July podcast with you guys, I talked about bringing in caregivers after a few years, because it was just too hard to do it myself. And that, you know, I would kind of help the caregivers but they did the kind of primary work around showers and bathing and all that. But yeah, no, the shower could shower can be a dangerous place if you're not really careful or any bathing because there's water and there's tile and you can slip. So that's you know, that's another thing. So third, another area about the bathroom is the slipperiness of the tile. So here's a couple thoughts. One is they have these amazing rubber tile things that that are used in kids play rooms, they're about three feet roughly square, and they're kind of a maybe a half inch of rubber and there have a texture on the top. And the benefit of that is if you fall on a rubber, you're not going to hurt yourself nearly as bad as hard tile. And so I had those in the bathrooms and they're there you can buy them in squares, you can buy two squares, five squares, whatever the space is in your bathroom that you need. And they're very, very effective.

Virginia Naeve 14:27  

I've seen them at Home Depot,

Mark Wilson  14:29  

they have them everywhere. I mean, any placing easy to get. And the only the only thing to watch out if you do buy one of those is if there's gets water underneath the rubber tile, they can be slippery. So you just have to very, you know frequently kind of lift them up there Very light, and see if there's water underneath and kind of wipe it out and make sure it's dry. Because if they do get slippery if there's water underneath these rubber tiles, but I swear by them, there's so much better than this slip tight, slippery tile. 

Virginia Naeve 14:55

Okay. 

Mark Wilson 14:56

If you don't for whatever reason, if you guys you know, don't want that kind of rubber tile in your house, another option and I, we did both because it scans super easy to do. There's a miracle product called Snow slip. And there's different versions of it different places, it's a liquid, and you pour it on tile, and you let it dry for about 20-minutes. And then you mop it off and then make sure it's dry. And it's amazing what it does, it puts a little etching in the tile, and it's totally invisible, you don't see the etching, so it doesn't damage your tile, it doesn't take away from the look of it. And it creates a friction so that water gets on it you so you don't slip. I don't think it's quite as good as a rubber tiles, but it's pretty good.

Virginia Naeve  15:38 

On any surface?

Mark Wilson  15:40  

Any tile surface for tiles and, and stonework too, as well. So and it's really simple. And very, I mean for six or $7 you can get a whole, you know, half a gallon of it and do a whole bathroom and kitchen. I do it on the kitchen if I were you and this again, these kinds of ideas. Even if you're not involved with Alzheimer's just for anybody, you don't want to slip in the kitchen or the best. It's a good thing to put on, you know, no matter what. 

Virginia Naeve 16:05

Yeah, falling is not good. 

Mark Wilson 16:07

Falling for anybody. It's not good. And it's amazing. It creates this friction and you don't even know it's there. It's totally invisible. And it's just as again you can get those products the Home Depot you know Walmart, Amazon, they're all over the place. And they're really easy to put on and half an hour to get it done. And again, it's.

Virginia Naeve  16:26  

the water temperature. Now, I've been told that you should make sure that you turned down the hot on your hot water heater so that whoever this is doesn't accidentally get burned.

Mark Wilson  16:41 

I didn't do that. But in general, we watched the temperature, you know very carefully. My mom really didn't do showers on her own. Well, she did early on, but she was careful then. But at some point where she needed help, you know, we would kind of manage that. But I don't like the water. I mean for myself, I don't like the water that hot. So that's a good idea for anybody. No, no, then it's easy to do. But yeah, the water. I mean, you're really a point Virginia water scary, you know, for Alzheimer's patients, and it's just kind of different and can make you very anxious, make them very anxious. So temperature then is just really important part of you know, being safe and the perception being right. So yeah, I think that's a great idea. Yeah, just turn the water a little more temperate. So it's not, you know, scalding or freezing. 

Virginia Naeve 17:30

Right. 

Mark Wilson 17:32

No, that's really important.

Virginia Naeve 17:33  

All right. So um, the bedroom how much do you have to do to a bedroom to make it safe and comfortable?

Mark Wilson 17:40  

Well, the bedroom is also important. So let's start with the flooring. Because flooring is important, as we talked about with a tile. Hopefully the bedroom that your loved one is in with Alzheimer's is carpet. Because carpet falling on carpet is much less dangerous than falling on hardwood flooring or tile are other things that are in bedrooms. So if there's a room that's carpet, that would be better, and not, you know, thick shaggy carpet because you can with shuffling you can easily kind of get your feet caught up in thick carpet so thin. And I think that's kind of the style that most carpet now is you know, it's pretty short. So that's, you know, that's important. If you don't if you can't do that, and you have hardwood floors, then I think these same rubber tiles can be done in the bedroom too. You can just put them in and they have little jigsaws that sort of connect to each other. And so you can make it as big or large or what direction narrower than whatever your bedroom needs. 

Steve O’Leary 18:37

Kind of like a playroom. 

Mark Wilson 18:40

Yeah, it's like a playroom. Exactly. That's what they're used for.

Virginia Naeve  18:42  

You can cut them I guess right? 

Mark Wilson 18:43 

You don't need to. Yeah, like you could but they kind of linked together so I wouldn't cut them because then they lose their connectedness. But they're like three feet so you can easily kind of put them in various spaces. You probably seen them Steve Yeah. So now they're very versatile and they could be put in the bedroom if you don't have carpet but I would not have you know, flooring in the bedroom. It's hard and risky. 

Virginia Naeve 19:05

No throw rugs either. 

Mark Wilson 19:07

No throw rugs. That's a great point because throw rugs you know easily can get caught up in your shuffling and you get you can easily fall with the throw rugs I would just take your throw rugs and put them in a closet for the time that your loved one is, you know at home. So yeah, throw rugs are not good. So carpeting or rubber mats on the flooring would be great. And then the second one is, this is something I really relied on. It's, I call it kind of a category of bed alarms. There are different kinds of bed alarms. But basically the idea is that you If your loved one is in need of help getting in and out of the bed and sort of moving into the bathroom, whatever they need to do in the middle of night, then it'd be nice to know that they're getting out of bed. So there's two basic kinds of bed alarms. One is sort of mattress based one, which, which a lot of them, facilities, nursing homes and so forth have that if there's if they stand, or hospitals have them, too, if you stand up, then there's no weight on the mattress. And so that triggers the alarm. And it's, you know, signal, there's different kinds of them. But you know, bell or whatever it kind of wakes you up, or makes you pay attention that the person is getting up. What I learned is that I like better than a mattress base bed alarm is a motion detector bed alarm, because when I found out was that with the mattress-based alarm, by the time my mom stood up and there was risk, because he was standing when she needed help transferring and getting help getting to the bathroom. So what was nice about the motion alarms, as soon as my mom's foot would go over the side, it would be in the motion sensors direction and with signal. So I would know, several seconds before that she was getting out of bed because the foot, your foot has to go over the side before, before your body can stand up.

Virginia Naeve  21:03  

That alarm system goes to your location, not right in front of her to startle her is that correct?

Mark Wilson  21:11

Right. And it's again, unbelievably, you know, simple, easy. They're their little sensors, they are there on a stand, and they're probably two inches by two inches. And you can position them anywhere they're battery powered, so you can move them around. And what I did is I had bought two of them for the different kind of spaces with my mom would get up. And then there's a receiver, if you will. And that's also very small. And you could if you're like I would sleep in the room, but I try to get a few hours sleep, I could put it right next to my ear, you could go anywhere in the house would be the range. So you can be another room. And you can run in if you hear it. And so it's very versatile. And it was nice, because if you wanted to put the motion alarm, like on a chair, if you know, during the day, you could also put it there so that if they start to get up on the chair, and so it's very movable, where a mattress alarm is a little bit trickier. And it's also you know, about 20% of the cost, the motion detectors are much cheaper than a mattress alarm. So anyway, I think it makes your life a lot more secure. Because you can if anybody if they move, then you know, and you can run in there and help and again, mitigate you know, or reduce the risk of any falls, which is, you know, job number one, falling is really, really dangerous.

Virginia Naeve  22:32  

Yeah, my lead didn't have such a thing when I would have used it for mom. And she got up in the middle of the night, one night. She went out to the hallway and fell and broke her arm.

Mark Wilson  22:42  

Oh, it's horrible. And then your hospital visits and all the things that are bad about the hospital for anybody no less Alzheimer's patient. So the motion alarm. And again, it's unbelievably cheap, I mean you can get for each one is maybe a nice one for like $20. And so it's like a no brainer, you know, to have it and it's good. It's also good for other things in the house, if you're if your loved one tends to wander, and my mom didn't have that issue, but some Alzheimer's patients sort of wander and put themselves at risk, you could put it near the door, you could put it anywhere. And you will know whether that person is on the move.

Virginia Naeve  23:18  

So you can just Google motion detector 

Mark Wilson  23:20  

Yeah, and we got ours on Amazon, Amazon was I got a lot of stuff on Amazon because it's so easy to get. We got ours on Amazon but you could buy it you know anywhere Google, you know, motion port of emotion detect battery powered motion detectors and, and you can get them and they're really easy to there's no setup, you just put the battery in and turn on. And you're and you're done. And so that's really important. Okay, so you know, flooring, the bed alarm is a must. The next one are bed rails. Again, you don't need a hospital bed at home, you can have one there, they're nice, but you don't need one is the bed rails go on any kind of bed, and they get fixed sort of underneath the mattress. And then again, there's many kinds and I'll tell you the ones that that I liked the best after trying a little bit. We tried the ones that go they're almost like hospital bed rails to go up and down, they go up and then you kind of just a minute go down. I found that those were really hard to do. And they were noisy and just kind of disturb my mom that kind of moving back and forth. Just was not working for me. So the next option is ones that are kind of fixed that you did not you know, don't go up and down. And there's two different kinds of that one is very long, that basically cover the whole bit covers the whole bed. And I found that that wasn't necessary, but because if you think about rolling, we worry about rolling out of bed, that's really the purpose of the bed rail, you're not going to roll out at where the feet are, you're going to roll out where your body is. And so I found that the shorter ones were more effective. One is because you could still get the person out of bed very easily, by just by going just a little bit lower to help them out of the bed. And you avoided you know, first of all long ones are like prison, you know, because you got these rails the whole bed and feel very closed in and, and they're hard to get somebody out of bed easily. So that's why I like to shorter ones, also, we put Afghans on it to make it in part, the whole goal of having your loved one at home is to make a comfortable, human being homey and warm. And so we put you know, kind of our favorite Afghan or blanket over the rails, which a made it more comfortable and nicer and homey and even more important than that, it protected or skin, you know, old people, older people have very thin delicate skin, as many of you know, and you could easily on a metal rail. Cut your skin when you're holding it or bumping against it or, and so this was protected the skin at the same time, it may just made it a lot nicer. Yeah, it was, again, a real simple idea. Just put a favorite blanket or, you know, Afghan or anything over it 

Virginia Naeve 25:56

It just looks better. 

Mark Wilson 25:58

It looks better. Exactly. So that's so that's kind of the bed real thing. And again, very inexpensive, you can get great medium size bed rails for under $50. And they're very easy to install, you just put them under the mattress. And there's like a strap where that kind of secures and they're very strong and very sturdy. And it's really again, eases your mind prevents you know somebody from rolling out of bed. And it's just a safety thing that's again, a no brainer. And you can buy them anywhere, you know, Amazon, Walmart, hospital supply stores have them, lots of places to buy them. So I really believe in those bedrails as well. So those are those are critical.

Ok, this is like a tour of the house so we’re going from the bedroom to the kitchen.   Now how do you get there safely.  You need a walker. Ok so a walker is interesting because I’ve had many people come up to me and say well I don’t think my loved one would want a walker. Because this or that.  They want to be independent.  A walker if there is starting to be shuffling, it is a no-brainer. Have the person use a walker.  It is such a simple tool it is so inexpensive you get them at CVS a hospital supply store, not expensive.   and they just provide that stability.  Rather than shuffling, you have them hold that walker and you guide them down the hall and it is a lot safer.  You can still kind of hold them and guide them cuz walkers are fool proof either. You can fall backwards in walker you can still get a walker stuck but walkers reduce the risk of falling exponentially. And sometimes we ascribe our values on other people and we say, “Well I wouldn’t want a walker!”.  So we assume they don’t. I think people want to be safe.  My mom had no problem starting with a walker when she was risky and she was fine with it.  I think a lot of people are when they try.  The other thing we do with a walker is make it fun. Sometimes things like. My mom liked little stuffed animals that that she had in her room. So very simple idea.  We would decorate the walker.    We put stuffed animals on the walker we tied it there.  And all of a sudden the walker becomes something fun you know instead of something burdensome.  

Now we are safely walking to the kitchen.  And the kitchen has a lot of kitchen and dining area have a lot of risky things. So there's knives, just sharp things, there's materials that are corrosive and poisons. So, it's really important again, you know, back to the you know, the beginning where Alzheimer's patients dementia patient don't necessarily think of safety and things that are unsafe, like we do. So they may not know that the knife can, you know, really cause some damage, so, or something corrosive, or chemical. So make sure they're out of reach. You know, there again, learning from kids, there's childproof locks for cabinets, very inexpensive, you can kind of just put a hook on there. And as in they can't open it typically. So that's, you know, really, really important. So, though, so kind of thinking about anticipating what are the things that the patient that your mom, your loved one might do that I would never think of another one is putting things in your mouth. If we think we don't, you know, we don't put things in our mouth, we don't smell things, bite things. Some Alzheimer's patients do that. And my mom had a biting thing. And so we were always worried about, you know, putting, having her put something in her mouth swallowing, choking. So we had to just really be careful about that.

Virginia Naeve  29:35

So there's probably somebody with her each time, she wanted to spend some time in the kitchen, probably best to have someone with her.

Mark Wilson 29:44  

And yeah, my mom really, after a while, so we didn't go in the kitchen, we had pre prepared meals for her and that kind of, but she ate on her own for a long time. So that brings me to another real basic thing is learning from children. There's children, rubber, like a stiff rubber utensils. So my mom, and I love them. It was like because I my mom would bite on the metal utensils, and she would feed herself we want to encourage you know, again, one of the principles you know, get your loved one to be independent as long as possible. So I love the fact that she was feeding yourself. But she would bite you know, bite the utensil and be risk of her breaking her tooth or whatever. So and the other thing that she would do is she loved to eat and we'd encourage you to eat on her own. And she would put too much in her mouth with the big four big fork and spoon. And, and she risked choking because as some of you know, as you sort of develop dementia, Alzheimer's swallowing and choking becomes more of an issue. So I found out about these kids spoons, they're amazing. They're smaller. So the portions who by definition are gonna be smaller, which slows her down on her eating and chewing and swallowing. And if you bite them, they're not going to break your mouth. I mean, there's like genius and somebody said somebody suggested that again, it totally inexpensive for you know, $1 or two you can get a whole set of these and you know, children's section on Walmart million different kinds, you know, get something firm but soft, and the portions are nice and small so they can still have the comfort of eating well without risking So little things like the stove safety is another one. We didn't have to worry about that with my long. But I know you know burning yourself or being or the stove and there's lots of so safety products that sort of protect the stove, or give you an alarm if you leave the stove on. I'm not too familiar with those. But I know they're out there too to consider.

Virginia Naeve 31:37  

I found one called Eye Guard stove. And it actually I think you have to have somebody install it for you. But it will actually turn the stove off if it's been on a long time. I don't know anything about them personally, but it sounded good online.

Mark Wilson  31:54  

There was so much technology now. inexpensively really protect me. The idea is to think about it's like okay, what could go wrong?

Virginia Naeve  32:01 

Well, we want to wrap this up pretty soon general home safety, are there any tips that you can think of like just

Mark Wilson  32:09 

a couple, Virginia one is, I've heard this from people before. And I want to eliminate if you really want your loved one to be home. Some people say well, my house has steps. And so you hear that why can't keep them at home because they're steps and they're shuffling, and they can't really go over steps. So here is another genius thing, you know, like the rubber spoons and forks, there are portable ramps that you can get by I bought a couple because we have steps not you know, not second four, it's one story but there's a number of places my mom had to go over that or steps. And so you can buy a portable ramp on Amazon for under $100. That's very sturdy. And you put it you know in the air and step area, and you can go up go up it on a walker or wheelchair. And the nice thing about that is don't have to, you know, have a carpenter and build expensive steps that you may not want to keep. So this is this is like another metal and they're really hard plastic, but to have friction. So they really are sturdy. And you basically and they're expandable, it's amazing. And you put them on a couple steps that you can go up and use them. And then you can move them and they're not heavy, you could move them to other steps, you can put them away. And it's just it's amazing. And there's all kinds of all kinds of them. So the excuse of,  “Oh, and I've got steps, I can't keep my mom at home or keep my dad at home.” It's sort of not true anymore. I don't think they can be used for major steep second, third floor, you know kinds of homes, but certainly little steps, 

Virginia Naeve  33:44

Right

Mark Wilson 33:46

1-2-3-4 steps in a home can be solved with.

Virginia Naeve  33:48 

Great tip!

Mark Wilson 33:48

Ramps, and really, really practical, inexpensive. 

Virginia Naeve 33:52

Great tip. 

Mark Wilson 33:53

Amazon. The next area again, just real quick, is coming back to this idea. This is again, for anybody elderly, that just Alzheimer's, your skin is so thin and fragile. There are many little things like there's edge guards that you can buy for kids learning from kids again, and again, very inexpensive, you put them on edges of cabinets, furniture, shelving, so that if they walk by and again, they're not stable, and they might hit something or fall on something, no, they don't have major damage that puts them in the hospital. And you just stick them on and you put up you put the edge guard in the corners, and you feel better. I mean, you're protected. Easy, very easy, inexpensive to do. since there's a lot to do, there's a lot here that again apply to anywhere. Anybody has a loved one at home for a short time, long time. And even facilities. Again, I've you know I've been to facilities where some of these things are not done. And that's not good because that risk is risk of falling and safety issues and facilities as well.

Virginia Naeve  34:55  

Well now people can kind of tuck these things away in their minds and as the disease progresses, they can make some of these adjustments to their home so they can keep their loved one at home if that's the plan.

Mark Wilson  35:10  

Yeah, that's That's exactly it. And I was determined to keep my mom at home and she was a home for 10 years with a journey of Alzheimer's. And I learned a lot but I would never trade again I felt there's no reason why can't create a safe, safer environment than a facility. And I knew she'd be happier at home and have more fun. And, and the safety was important, though.

Virginia Naeve  35:32  

Well, you did it.

Steve O’Leary 35:34  

Yeah, I was gonna say Mark, I've talked to many people who have that decision, and are afraid of it afraid of not doing a good job, afraid of the inconvenience for themselves, whatever the fear might be, and you've done a wonderful job. There's lots to do, but it's still possible. And I applaud you, for one, doing it, and two, you know, this is really a teach opportunity for somebody to consider it. Whereas before, you might not have.

Mark Wilson  36:05  

Yeah, that's my goal. And going through these with you guys, because a lot of people rule it out. And I found it was work. But it was remarkably, you know, doable. And not all that difficult to find these things with search, Google searching, and Amazon, you can find all these things very easily and not expensive. I mean, you could equip your whole house for $500 and get all these things I talked about.

Virginia Naeve  36:31  

Well, thank you so much for joining us today. This has really been interesting. And hopefully, we're helping people out there. And we'll have to say goodbye for now. But maybe you can be back again someday with some interesting information. 

Mark Wilson 36:43

I would love it. 

Virginia Naeve 36:45

Thank you, Mark. Thank you for joining us out there everyone. 

Steve O’Leary 36:48

Thank you

Mark Wilson  36:49 

Thanks Steve

Virginia Naeve 36:50

Join us again on Spotlight on Care

Mark Wilson 36:52

Great. Thank  you Guys, appreciate it. Have a good holiday

Steve O’Leary  36:56

Spotlight on Care is produced by the University of California Irvine. Institute for Memory Impairments and Neurological Disorders. UCI MIND interviews focus on personal caregiving journeys and may not represent the views of UCI MIND. Individuals concerned about cognitive disorders, prevention, or treatment should seek expert diagnosis and care. Please subscribe to the Spotlight on Care podcast wherever you listen. For more information, visit mind.uci.edu

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