Home Health Care – 5 Tips For A Safe And Healthy Home
A healthy home enables a happy environment. With all of the risks, ensuring your home is healthy and safe for the whole family can feel overwhelming. In fact, for many people, the pandemic has caused additional anxiety around safety. Fortunately, there are ways of making your home your sanctuary and feeling safe again. Here are five tips to get you started:
1. Keep A Well-Stocked First Aid Box
Having medical supplies on hand can save you or a member of your family during an emergency. There are some great pre-packed first aid boxes you can order online or purchase at a chemist.
Alternatively, you can create your own, giving you the opportunity to include items that might be unique to your family. For example, for families with bee sting allergies, an EpiPen might be added to your supply box. For families with a diabetic member, a glucagon injection is essential to have on hand.
2. Consider Hidden Dangers
Hidden dangers include leaky pipes, damp and mold festering out of sight, and poor maintenance to the property, like broken floorboards or decaying steps. Look out for signs of deterioration, even if it is subtle.
Often, behind the obvious and small visual cues, there lie larger issues that could lead to safety hazards. Have regular (annual) check-ups from your HVAC service technicians to ensure that there are no hidden dangers, gas leaks, water leaks, overheating, or fire hazards.
3. Keep Up With Pest Control
Speaking of hidden dangers, pests can be a major problem. In fact, termites are considered one of the most destructive risks to your home. They can quietly gnaw away at the structure of the house for over a decade with no visible indication of the damage that is being done.
Crumbling walls, decimated drywall, caved-in floors, diseases entering your home (via rats, cockroaches, and even ants), and support pillars dropping down – these are the risks you face when you don’t regularly maintain pest control maintenance. This also poses a financial risk, since homeowner’s insurance does not cover damage caused by pests.
4. Have Child-Proof Measures In Place
Do you have young children? While many parents are reassured of their child’s safety when there are comprehensive child-proof measures in place, there are many little dangers that can go unnoticed.
The basics that you must cover include:
- Protection for areas that pose fall risks (e.g. gates at the top and bottom of staircases);
- Covering electricity outlets;
- Ensuring large furniture items aren’t at risk of tipping over (this may mean bolting items like closets and cabinets to the wall);
- Ensuring all bodies of water are fenced and/or covered at all times (even a bucket or a pail of water is a drowning hazard for a toddler).
5. Consider Your Security
Thus far, the inner mechanisms and environment of the home have been considered. Now think of the external factors, like your security. Even homes that are in the safest neighborhood can benefit from added security. The top tips for creating a burglar-proof home include:
- Keeping a small dog (burglars know that small dogs are noisier and faster to alert their owners when there’s an intruder);
- Burglar bars on windows to prevent opportunistic intruders from entering the home;
- A fence around your front yard, making it easier for young ones to play safely out of harm’s way.
Your Home, Your Haven
Make your home your haven by implementing the safety protocols that will make you feel most comfortable. Understanding the risk factors gives you the power to make wise decisions that resonate with your lifestyle.
