11 Fall-Prevention Tips to Keep Your Home Hazard-Free

Update your shower or tub

Aside from adding grab bars, one easy addition to the bathroom that can reduce fall risk is a shower chair. These chairs are available in a variety of styles and even have backs and arms. “For our patients who are easily fatigued, a shower chair is a great alternative,” Samuels says.

If you have a tub, one option is to change it to a shower or a bathtub-shower combo. Another option is a tub transfer bench. “Why I like these is that there are many different styles,” Samuels says. “The most basic is a bench where two of the legs are in the tub and two are out. So you sit on the outside of the bench, you shimmy over, you pull your legs over while you're sitting and then you are now in the tub on the bench.” You can even get the “Cadillac” version of the bench, as Samuels calls it, which connects the toilet to the tub. In other words, you can do your business and then slide all the way into the bathtub to wash, Samuels explains.

Upgrade (and raise up) your toilet

Sullivan recommends investing in a higher toilet. “A comfort or chair-height toilet is several inches taller than a standard toilet,” he says. “These toilets are more comfortable to begin with due to the height and also make sitting and getting up easier, which reduces the risk of a fall.”

You can also buy a raised toilet seat if you don’t want to completely change out your toilet, Samuels says. Some come as a “chunky raised toilet seat” and others come with armrests — some that reach all the way down to the ground for more support.

Adding a bedside commode — a portable toilet that needs to be emptied manually — to your home is another way to help with fall prevention for people who struggle with incontinence or nocturia (waking up at night to urinate), according to Samuels.

Think about your stairs

Stairs are another common place for falls to happen. That’s why Merrill suggests adding bright tape on your steps. “They make a special tape that you can put on each step so you know exactly where the steps are,” Merrill says.

Samuels says there’s evidence to show that these “edge highlighters” improve confidence and safety, especially for people with visual impairment. She also adds that slip-resistant step edges, sometimes advertised as nonslip stair nosing or stair treads, have also been shown to reduce falls. “The nonslip treads are the full stair, and the nonslip nosing [covers] just the edge,” Samuels says.

Stair lifts can be a worthy investment for some, Samuels adds. She also says you could consider requesting a physician’s letter to move to a first-floor apartment for fall prevention if you live in an apartment or subsidized housing.

Create easy-access cabinets

Are you always teetering on a stool to reach things in your kitchen? Sullivan recommends drop-down wall cabinets — a specific type of wall cabinet with special hinges that allow you to pull the cabinet interior closer to the counter for easier access.

Don’t forget to declutter

Clutter can feel unavoidable at times. But coming up with ways to declutter your home can ultimately make it safer, according to Merrill. “Clutter can cause falls,” he says. “So try to remove clutter, and keep the house and the walkways as free as possible.”

Even things you might not think of as clutter can cause a tripping hazard. “The electric cords and wires and things, just make sure that they're tucked away and not running across a walkway in your house,” Merrill adds.

Consider cameras

In some of her patients’ homes, Samuels will see cameras that have two-way talking capability. “This is usually in my cognitively impaired patients, but their families have cameras in those high-fall areas,” Samuels says. “It allows for easy communication and detection of falls quickly to be able to act. And in that way, it keeps our cognitively impaired patients safer at home, if that's what their goals are.”

It's also a good idea to make sure you’re always near your cellphone or a device that can alert someone if you fall, says Samuels.

Ditch the floppy slippers

Get rid of those soft, floppy slippers with poor grip. “We want a low heel with a wide sole because there’s a higher surface contact area with the ground, some kind of secure fixation like Velcro or laces to prevent the flopping around, and then a slip-resistant outsole,” Samuels says. “So the best types of shoes are athletic shoes or canvas shoes. Slippers are just generally a fall risk, inherent in themselves.”

Staying safe in your home starts with you

While there are plenty of changes you can make to your home when it comes to fall prevention, there are also many things you can do for yourself to decrease your chances of a fall.

Stay active. Samuels says “exercise, diet, hydration and socialization” are key recommendations for fall prevention, especially if you’d like to age in place. Exercise, she says, is often the biggest piece that’s missing, and she follows the CDC’s recommendation for older adults in saying that you should aim for a weekly 150 minutes of moderate-intensity aerobic physical activity (equivalent in effort to brisk walking).

Merrill also encourages people to “be as active as they can be” — whether that means making regular trips between the kitchen and living room or attending an exercise class. He says senior centers are great because they often have different levels of classes like tai chi and yoga, which can improve balance.

Be on top of your health. Make sure you report any new health concerns to your doctor. If, for example, you’re suddenly feeling dizzy more often, Merrill says, bring that up with your doctor and make sure your current medications are evaluated by a physician. “There could be a side effect you don't know about,” Merrill says.

You should also bring any new health issues to your doctor because balance impairment is “the number one thing that causes falls,” according to Samuels. She says many factors can lead to balance issues, including sensory deficits like visual impairment, vestibular dysfunction (which can lead to dizziness and vertigo) and somatosensory disorders such as neuropathy, which is commonly caused by diabetes. “Take those sensory deficits and add in delayed reaction time and muscle weakness and all of those things contribute to this balance impairment,” Samuels says.

Have regular hearing and vision exams. Merrill says having regular eye, vision and hearing exams is crucial for fall prevention. “You want to make sure your vision is good so you can see things in front of you or make sure you can maybe judge as you're walking,” Merrill says. “But, oddly, hearing also plays a factor because you might not be able to sense something around you.”

Consider adaptive devices. There are many different types of adaptive devices to help with mobility, such as wheelchairs, walkers and canes. And there should be no stigma against using them, Merrill says: “Utilize whatever you need to maintain that quality of life that you want.”

Unsure if you need one? “I would say to that person that they should see their geriatrician because all geriatricians are well-versed in examining a gait,” Samuels says. “We will essentially watch them walk, examine them and discuss what kinds of things would be appropriate for them.”

Still wary of using an adaptive device even if a medical professional recommends one? “When someone has the appropriate assistive device for walking, they actually end up walking more,” Samuels says. “They exercise more, they get stronger and, depending on the condition, maybe they won't need it in the future or they will be stronger and their fear of falling will decrease, so their risk of falling will decrease.”

Learn how to fall. The safest way to fall, according to Samuels, involves a tuck-and-roll approach. “This protects against head trauma, arm fractures and shoulder dislocation,” she says, adding that more than 2,000 videos of nursing home falls were studied to find this data. If a tuck-and-roll approach isn’t possible, she recommends “some kind of body rotation during descent to fall sideways rather than forward or backward” — but try not to use your arms to brace your fall. Here's a three-minute video she recommends on learning how to fall safely.

Conquer your fear of falling. If you’re afraid of falling, know you’re not alone. But you should also know that fear can actually increase fall risk because it causes people to be less active, according to Samuels. “One of the best ways of mitigating or changing that idea is to have them work with physical therapy to make them confident in either walking independently or walking with some kind of assistive device that may or may not be new for them,” Samuels says.

“We grow up with this idea we're battling aging, we're fighting aging, and then we finally arrive at what we think is ‘aged’ and we have this inherent bias,” Samuels adds.. “If we’re able to remove our inherent bias that aging is hard or sad … and reframe it to a natural progression and say, ‘I will continue my exercise and diet as I age,’ then you can have meaningful, additional years added to your life.”