Fire safety for older adults
With cold weather, there is usually an increase in fires and fire related injuries. In particular, fires can be a hazard for the elderly.
Consider smoke detectors, batteries and fire extinguishers as gifts for the elder on your list. However, since safety is one of those gifts that keeps on giving, you might want to add maintenance and instruction about how to use these tools to the list.
It may be that though your recipient lives on their own, they have no way to get up high to change the batteries, or, they might not know how to operate a fire extinguisher.
And, as always in any home make sure everyone knows at least 2 ways to exit in case of a fire.
At the end of my mother’s living with us, she nearly burned the house down by setting the electric tea kettle on the stove to heat water. Not only did the thing start to burn up, she didn’t seem to notice that the house was full of smoke.
All the training and information and fire extinguishers in the world wouldn’t have changed a thing. By that point in her life, Mom needed 24-hour supervision, but we were in denial and wouldn’t see it–until that day.
Can I add considering Carbon Monoxide Monitors. Many elderly yet capable, may still keep up with their smoke detectors and such, but just as many are blissfully unaware of the risks of Carbon Monoxide Poisoning. And since these detectors are (relatively) new things, many don’t even think about needing/getting them.