After a loved one is diagnosed with Alzheimer’s or another type of dementia, you might realize that their home environment isn’t as safe as it should be. They may forget to turn off the stove or trip over things like extension cords. As a caregiver, you can help create a dementia-friendly environment with home modifications and by using personal safety devices. However, if living at home is no longer a safe option, it may be time to consider memory care to help ensure their well-being.
Understand the Needs of Seniors with Alzheimer's
Alzheimer's disease damages the neurons in the brain, according to the National Institute on Aging. This affects the person's memory and cognitive functions, including reasoning, problem-solving, language, and judgment. People with Alzheimer's or a related form of dementia often experience confusion and may wander. Personality changes, such as anger, sadness, and even aggression, can also occur.
These cognitive changes can make safety more challenging. Memory loss may cause them to forget to take medications, lock doors, or shut off the faucet. To help keep your loved one safe, it’s important to assess their needs and make changes accordingly.
In the earlier stages, you may be able to make some home modifications yourself. But in later stages, it gets critical to get a professional care needs assessment. You can reach out to your loved one’s physician, your local social services department, or a dementia specialist to help you schedule an evaluation. This can help you properly determine their care level and whether it’s safe for them to continue living at home.
Remove Fall Hazards
People with dementia may have mobility or balance issues. Some medications they take may also cause dizziness or drowsiness that contributes to accidents. Simple modifications can increase home safety for seniors and help prevent falls.
To help reduce falls around the home, implement these key home and bathroom safety tips for a loved one with dementia:
- Install grab bars in the bathroom
- Limit the use of throw rugs or add nonslip rug pads under area rugs
- Use nonslip bathmats and kitchen mats
- Remove tripping hazards (loose cords, frayed carpeting, uneven tiles, etc.)
- Create wide walkways through the home
How Sunrise Helps Minimize Fall Risk
At Sunrise Senior Living, our memory care suites are thoughtfully designed to enhance safety and ease of navigation for residents. Each residence features occupancy sensory light switches, which automatically turn on the lights—helping residents avoid walking in the dark and reducing fall risks.
Room layouts are spacious yet strategically arranged, with clear sight lights to the bed and bathroom to support safe, intuitive movement. In shared amenity spaces, our design team carefully selects contrasting colors for floors, furniture, and walls to aid depth perception and visual clarity.
Furniture is chosen with purpose: the scale, seat height, and armrest height are all tailored to promote comfort and resident independence. Every design detail reflects our commitment to creating a safe, supportive environment.
Help Manage Wandering
While confusion and disorientation can occur at any stage of dementia, the symptoms become more pronounced in the mid-to-late stages—significantly increasing the risk of wandering. To help manage a loved one’s wandering, consider using home safety devices for dementia patients.
Some helpful home safety devices for dementia include alarms or motion detectors. These can be installed on exterior doors to alert caregivers if their loved one leaves the home. You can also use GPS-tracking devices to keep track of their location. Nowadays, safety devices can be wearable and undetectable. They can be found in forms of necklaces, watches, shoe inserts, and clothing tags.
It’s also crucial to create a secure outdoor area for your loved one if they have a front or back yard. Consider installing a fence around the home and ensuring that it stays locked. This can enable your loved one to enjoy fresh air or garden within a safe space.
How Design Elements in Memory Care Help with Wandering
When assisting your loved one with a move to a memory care community, like Sunrise, it’s important to maintain familiarity in their new living space. Recreating the layout of their suite to resemble their home—especially the bedroom or living room where they spent most of their time—can help reduce confusion, increase comfort, and support wandering management. Filling their space with beloved, recognizable items also helps create a sense of security.
Because wandering is common, Sunrise communities embrace it as an opportunity for purposeful engagement. Our design teams thoughtfully curates intentional vignettes, placing them throughout the community. These cozy, familiar setups might include a writing desk with stationery, a rocking chair, or locally inspired art that adds visual interest. These thoughtful touches encourage gentle exploration and help guide residents naturally through the space, reducing aimless wandering.
Add Labels and Signage
Adding labels to rooms and items in the home at eye level helps someone living in the earlier stages of dementia find their way around and locate things with ease—also known as wayfinding. Adding signs with symbols can help improve recognition. Be sure signs are clear, in bold face, and have good contrast between the text or icon and background color.
Here are some ideas for adding clear signage to improve home safety for seniors with dementia:
- Add signs on doors. For example, a toilet icon on the bathroom door can help prevent confusion.
- Label cabinets. For cabinets your loved one might need daily access to, add labels or signs. For example, a soap bar or lotion pump symbol to signify the toiletries cabinet.
- Use sticky notes. Add notes around the home to serve as reminders. For instance, a note saying “check for keys and wallet” next to the front door can be useful.
How Memory Care Communities Support Wayfinding
Lots of memory care communities help residents navigate their way around with clear signage and labeling, However, at Sunrise, our design approach goes further by incorporating strategic color cues to support wayfinding. For example, we may paint doors to key areas—like resident residences—in contrasting colors to make them easily identifiable. In contrast, doors to staff-only or equipment rooms might be painted to blend in with surrounding walls, subtly discouraging entry. These thoughtful design choices help residents navigate their environment confidently and help manage wandering.
Improve Lighting
Proper lighting is a crucial part of home safety for seniors, especially when creating a dementia-friendly environment. It can help a loved one with dementia navigate spaces easier. And exposure to bright light, known as light therapy, can also help improve rest and reduce the restlessness associated with sundowning—an increased agitation state during late afternoon and early evening in seniors with dementia.
To improve lighting when creating a dementia-friendly environment, use the following home safety tips:
- Add motion sensor lights in key areas, such as the bottom of the bed, side of stairs, and bathrooms.
- Add night lights in hallways and bathrooms to prevent accidents in the night.
- Add adequate lighting to cabinets and closets to help prevent confusion and make it easier to find daily items.
How Memory Care Communities Select Lighting
Lighting plays a key role in supporting resident wellness in memory care environments. At Sunrise, our design team carefully selects lighting to support resident well-being. We use a slightly brighter, blue-toned light (3000k) for overhead lighting and a warmer, yellow-toned light (2700k) at eye level and below. This mimics the way natural sunlight transitions from cooler tones above to warmer hues near the horizon, which helps residents feel more in sync with natural light patterns.
If a resident wakes up often during the night, Sunrise dementia-trained specialists encourage direct morning sunlight to help reset their circadian clock. On a sunny day, 5-10 minutes of direct morning sunlight should suffice but on a cloudy day, it could be up to 20 minutes. Our communities are built to help residents get plenty of sunlight—whether it’s indoors near a window or outdoors when the weather is nice.
Reduce Excessive Noise
Excessive noise can make it hard for anyone living with dementia to focus and it might lead to overstimulation and agitation. To help prevent this, try to minimize noise in their home with the following tips:
Soundproof loud areas. If your loved one lives on a busy street and noise creeps in through the window, add in sound-blocking window inserts.
Play white noise or calming background music. If subtle noises are hard to keep out, try playing white noise sounds or instrumental music—whatever your loved one prefers. There are so many options, from ocean and nature sounds to soft jazz and lo-fi.
Speak calmly. Avoid raising your voice or showing frustration through your tone. Loud voices may alarm or disorient them.
Seek Support
Some of these dementia-friendly environmental changes may not be feasible in an older home or may be too costly. Or they simply may not be enough in the later stages of dementia as safety becomes more of a concern. Your loved one may need care around the clock, which you may not be able to provide due to work or other life commitments. That’s when turning to senior living can be a helpful option.
Sunrise offers specialized memory care communities, where our team prioritizes creating a comfortable and safe environment for seniors with Alzheimer’s or other types of dementia. Our communities promote safety and independence with intentional design, robust safety features, and purposeful programming to bring residents comfort and joy. Our care team is also specially trained to learn about residents’ history and preferences to provide care tailored to their individual needs.
If you’re interested in learning more about memory care in your area, find a Sunrise community near you. Our team members are happy to answer questions about how we can accommodate your loved one’s needs.
References
[1] National Institute on Aging. National Institutes of Health. (2023, April 5). Alzheimer’s disease fact sheet.
[2] Hanford, N. & Figueiro, M. (2013, January 24). Light therapy and Alzheimer’s disease and related dementia: Past, present, and future. Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease.