Every July it’s important to celebrate Eye Injury Prevention Month by checking out potential issues that could lead your senior to experience an eye injury. If your elderly family member hasn’t had an eye exam in a while, this is a good reminder to go ahead and schedule one of those, as well. Over 90 percent of eye injuries are preventable, and this information can help you to do so for your senior. A home care services provider can help you with this.
Make Sure She Has and Wears Eye Protection
Eye protection is a crucial part of protecting your senior’s eyes. Safety goggles and sunglasses help to keep potential physical damage from occurring, while sunglasses protect from UV rays. Make sure to choose sunglasses that specifically say that they protect against broad-spectrum radiation. Your senior should wear eye protection when she’s outside or when she’s doing anything that could cause something to get into her eyes, including activities like cleaning or gardening.
Get First Aid Right Away for Any Eye Injuries
Avoiding help for eye injuries, even if they’re presumed to be minor, can be a big problem. Any time that anything happens with your senior’s eyes, she should get them checked out. A scratched cornea isn’t something that is easy for you to see with the naked eye, but it can lead to big problems for your elderly family member.
Clean Eyewear Regularly
It’s also a good idea for your senior to clean her eyewear on a regular basis. Glasses collect a lot of dust, even when your senior wears them all the time. Home care assistance can help to make sure that your senior’s glasses are cleaned regularly for her. This can reduce the likelihood that something falls into her eyes from the surface of the eyeglasses and causes damage to her eyes.
Don’t Ignore What Seems Like Simple Irritation
Sometimes a situation that seems simple really isn’t. Any kind of eye irritation could be a sign of bigger issues, including injuries or eye diseases. Making sure that you know exactly what is going on with your senior’s eyes can help to ensure that her eyes don’t get injured further by ignoring irritation. When elder care is spending time with your senior, they can help her to pay closer attention to how her eyes feel.
Be Aware of Household Hazards
Household hazards can be another serious problem that can lead to eye injuries. Tripping and falling, for instance, can cause your senior to injure her eyes. Make sure that you stay up to date with safety sweeps in your elderly family member’s home. Home care assistance can help your elderly family member to have a tidy home that is safe and where she is less likely to become injured in any part of her body.
Eye injuries are nothing to ignore or downplay, especially as your senior gets older. Even the smallest eye injuries can become much more of a problem if they’re ignored. And that can lead to potentially awful ramifications, like your senior losing her eyesight.