When you decide to move your loved one to Grapevine, TX senior assisted living facilities, you expect that he or she will be safe and secure. However, that may not always be guaranteed especially if your relative happens to have memory loss or dementia.
These conditions tend to compromise the cognitive awareness of older adults, increasing their capacity to wander off unaccompanied. Elopement as the act is called, may be dangerous to an elderly person. It may expose them to harm.
Here are some tactics that assisted living communities implement to improve their security and curb elopement.
Training Caregivers Thoroughly
Apart from knowing how to take care of the medical, nutritional, and physical needs of the residents, caregivers should be trained on how to keep a close eye on the community guests as well. They ought to be extra cautious, particularly when tending to residents who are likely to exhibit wandering behaviors.
Still, the community administration should have a check-in system that will make it easy for caregivers to account for the whereabouts of every resident.
Utilizing Electric Tagging Devices
The use of electric tagging devices provides an adequate solution for seamless tracking and the location of any community resident who happens to wander off. These devices are designed in form of bracelets or necklaces or shoe inserts. The devices may be linked to GPS or alarm doors for improved efficiency.
Careful Community Security Assessment
The community’s security system is the first line of protection for the safety and well-being of the guests. An ideal security system should feature accurate and functional monitoring systems that will be manned regularly to ensure every older adult remains within the community area unless authorized to leave.
In addition, the center should incorporate high-quality doors with door alarms, key codes, or magnetic locks. Door alarms can notify the team of caregivers when anyone wanders out of the community. To top it off, all the security features and devices must be checked for proper functionality and updated when necessary.
Strategic Room Assignment
New arrivals often pose the highest elopement risk since the caregivers do not fully understand their cognitive capability. To curb that, it is vital to accommodate new residents in rooms located further away from the main entry or exit of the center.
In addition, they should be moved to rooms that are close to the community area. The community areas tend to feature heavy supervision which is important. These measures will allow the caregivers sufficient time to observe them and comprehend their behavior patterns.
Analyzing Residents for Potential Elopement Risk
Unsupervised wandering is what leads to elopement. Thus, it is imperative for the administration to regularly conduct wandering risk assessments on the residents to check for cognitive decline which elevates the elopement risk. Any guests with a significant wandering risk must be moved to a dementia-specific area for efficient surveillance.
Try Senior Assisted Living Communities
Your older relative or friend is more likely to wander off into dangerous situations while home alone as compared to residing in a retirement community. However, before moving your elderly family member to a senior assisted living center, ensure the community has solid security measures to keep your loved one safe.
