One of the reasons to outfit a home for an older adult is to lessen the chances of them wandering out of the house and getting lost. This is particularly important for people with dementia or Alzheimer’s. There are a number of ways to do this and this is the first part in our series of home modifications that can be done.

Door and window alarms are excellent and there are a number of them out in the market. You can have them ring directly to your cell phone or to a provider of the service.

Perhaps an easier and cheaper method is to use door knob covers which are often used for children as well. They make opening the door trickier and can slow or stop people from easily getting out of the room.

Another technique is to install another lock or pinch guard up higher on the door. This allows the door to be opened but not enough to let someone out. Of course, it depends on the height and persistence of the person but like door knob covers, can slow the process down to give you time to react.

There are also a number of more electronic aides such as pressure mats that you can put alongside the bed or the person to alert you when they get up; or even small sensors that you can put on their clothing or in their shoe, which will do the same thing. The latter is quite useful for people who do not want to wear alarms or sensors and tend to take them off even if they accept them initially.