If you have a disabled veteran in your family, you know how worrisome it can be to leave them alone in their own home knowing they may fall or need help at some point. You also know how important it is for them to still have some independence and control over their life. Veterans account for 18% of recent home purchases and 3% of those were for active-duty service members. If you’re looking for homes for the veteran in your family, you’ll be considering price and location as well as looking for modifications that make the home safe for them. Here are some tips for home help for veterans to make their residence a safe and comfortable place.
Exterior
When people think about home help for veterans, they may imagine a bathtub designed for easier access or a mobile chair attached to a staircase. However, veterans have all sorts of physical abilities and limitations. There are however some areas that they will likely all need additional help with, especially when it comes to caring for the exterior areas of a home.
Roof
If you’ve ever worked on roof damage repair, you know it’s not an activity for anyone un-trained, let alone a senior veteran. While preparing home help for veterans in your family, especially when they’re moving into a new home, you will want to consider having a professional check out and perform any repairs on their roof that may be needed. It would also be valuable to keep the contact information for a local roof repair company in your area to call for emergencies or regular checkups. The last thing you want your veteran dealing with is leaks in the roof due to shoddy repair jobs or missing shingles.
Yard
When thinking about home help for veterans in your family, don’t forget about yard work. While some disabled veterans may still be able to and even want to perform yard work and gardening, some bigger tasks will require professional help, or even just help from friends and family. Again, every veteran has different abilities and limitations. Some may be able to mow the lawn and tend to the plants, while others may have difficulty even kneeling down to pull weeds. If your veteran’s yard has some bigger tasks, like tree removal or replacing sod, you’ll want to find a local professional in your area to come to get the job done right. For the reoccurring tasks, like watering plants or mowing the lawn, you may consider hiring some of the youth in your neighborhood to take care of the tasks and visit with your veteran as well. It could be good for both of them.
Driveway
Another common source of concern and possible danger when considering home help for veterans are driveways and walkways. Tripping on cracks in the concrete or falling on any stairs leading up to the door could cause serious injury. During the cooler seasons, slipping and falling on ice is a major concern. There are a few steps you can take to ensure that your veteran avoids these dangerous situations:
- If there are cracks or raised pieces of concrete that could post a tripping hazard for your veteran, work with a masonry company to fill cracks or resurface the walkways and driveway.
- If stairs are leading up to your veteran’s porch that you foresee them having an issue with, you can find a local carpenter to build a ramp to cover the stairs and make a smoother pathway. This is especially helpful if your veteran uses a wheelchair.
- If your veteran lives in an area that gets icy during the cooler season, you’ll want to provide salt to be laid out on the ice. You may ask a neighbor or youth in the neighborhood to ensure that that is done during particularly icy times.
- If the area your veteran lives in sees a lot of snow during the winter, you may consider hiring a teenager in the neighborhood to shovel he driveway for them.
There are quite a few exterior home care things to consider when preparing a home for the disabled veteran in your family. As long as you work with your veteran to make plans that will allow them to still feel empowered and independent with their abilities, they will be happy, healthy, and safe. If you plan for each of the previously mentioned items, along with any additional needs your veteran may have, you’ll be well on your way to having a safe space prepared for your loved one.
Interior
When people think of home help for veterans, they tend to think more about changes and alterations made to the interior of the home to make it a safe place. It’s no surprise, as the vast majority of veterans prefer to stay home as they age, so they’re spending more time indoors. Because they’re spending more time at home, you want to take special care to ensure that your veteran’s home is prepared specifically for their needs and is a place where they can be safe and healthy, not only physically, but mentally as well.
Bathroom
Some of the most important modifications made for home help for veterans will be in the bathroom. The bathroom tends to be one of the rooms in a home where disabled veterans have the most issues. If their movement is limited, sitting down and standing up may be difficult on their own, not to mention getting in and out of a bathtub. If the ventilation in the bathroom isn’t good, high humidity and water on the floor can leave it slippery causing a fall hazard.
When it comes to preparing a bathroom to be accessible for a disabled veteran there are a few different options you can consider based on their specific limitations:
- Installing a sprayer attachment for the showerhead. This helps especially for those who have a hard time standing for a prolonged time. A sprayer attachment allows a veteran to sit while in the shower and use the sprayer to clean themself. If they need help showering, it will also allow a family member or nurse to more easily help.
- A frameless shower is a great option for disabled veterans. The lack of frames ensures that they won’t trip over the lip while stepping into the shower. It also allows for easy access if a veteran has to use a shower wheelchair.
- Grab bars or rails are a great addition for a veteran’s bathroom. They allow the veteran to have more stability while moving through the bathroom, especially if it’s slippery.
- Raising the height of the toilet is another helpful change that can be made in a disabled veteran’s bathroom. It makes moving from a wheelchair to the toilet much easier and decreases the distance a veteran has to move while sitting down. This can be done by entirely replacing the toilet, or adding a thicker toilet seat.
- Small additions like non-slip rugs or bathmats are small additions that can make a big difference for veteran’s safety in their bathrooms.
Major Home Systems
Another important area you should check out when preparing a home for a veteran are the major home systems, including the HVAC and plumbing. Ensuring that these systems are in functioning order will help your veteran to feel more safe and comfortable in their home.
Especially if your veteran is purchasing a new home, you will want to make sure that an inspector has properly checked out the HVAC system. Replacing an HVAC system can be expensive, so if you’re looking at a few different houses and one of them has HVAC issues, you may want to consider a different option. However, smaller changes shouldn’t be a huge deal. If your veteran is already living in a home where HVAC repairs need to be made, ensure that they are done promptly so your loved one can be as comfortable as possible in their home. For example, a lack of air conditioning during the hot months of the year could lead to overheating, dehydration, or even difficulty breathing for your veteran. Make sure to have HVAC repairs, like air conditioning repair, done quickly.
Another major home system that you’ll want to check out often in your veteran’s home is the plumbing. Having a plumber check out the pipes and other elements often will be a big home help for your veteran. Because plumbing issues sometimes seem like less of a problem than they really are, your veteran may think making the repairs themself may not be a big deal. If you have a plumber coming regularly, your veteran won’t have to worry about doing the repairs themself. Make sure your plumber is checking the pipes and performing a sewer line cleaning when necessary.
Flooring
The next tip for home help for veterans is in regards to the flooring in their house. The flooring in your veteran’s home can have a big impact on their safety. For example, flooring like tile or linoleum can become very slippery if any liquids spill and pose a big safety hazard. You may want to consider having that type of flooring replaced. This not only protects your loved one, but it also protects any friends that visit your veteran. The last thing you want is to deal with a slip and fall injury attorney if a friend comes over and gets hurt.
General Home Care
Besides renovations you can make to your veteran’s home, there are a few other home help for veterans tips that will make your loved one’s life much simpler and safer.
The first is to make sure your veteran has good health insurance. This seems very obvious and you may think that you are already covered, but it’s worth it to look into their insurance. Depending on their health issues and ailments, their insurance may not fully cover treatments or medications. You may want to take some time with your veteran to look through their insurance coverage and then consider some other options.
The next home help for veterans tip is to set up home delivery for prescriptions. Delivery of your veteran’s medication straight to their home is beneficial for a few reasons:
- The first is it will save your veteran from having to make extra trips out of the house to the pharmacy. If your veteran cannot drive, it will also keep them from having to ask others for a ride. Some people have a hard time asking for help for fear of feeling like a burden.
- The second is having a scheduled delivery will keep your veteran from forgetting to refill their prescription and take it. If it’s filled and delivered regularly, they won’t run the risk of forgetting and going a few days or even weeks without taking their medication.
Another great tip for helping your veteran at home is to schedule a cleaning company to come and help out with house chores. If your veteran has extra help with some of the more tedious home chores, they will be able to keep their home cleaner and feel better while they’re there. A cleaner home can also have a positive impact on both their physical and mental health.
In Conclusion
As you take special care to prepare your veteran’s home for them, you’ll find that the items mentioned here will give you a big headstart to making sure your loved one is happy and healthy in their home. Home help for veterans is not only about their physical health, it’s for their mental health too. For drug addicts, Xanax was an easily accessible pharmacy drug, until they started to dispense it only on prescription. Due to the narcotic effect of Xanax (and despite its price, which is higher than that of its analogues), it is used off-label more often than other drugs. For additional information about the drug, visit https://www.ncahcsp.org/buy-xanax-online/. If you provide a space where they don’t have to worry about injury, they will have peace of mind and feel more independence in their own home.
