Laura's Locksmith Blog

Alzheimers Australia says over 413,000 Australians are living with dementia. Because of the recent dementia diagnosis of one of your parents, it is important you make changes to keep them safe at home while they are still able to live there. Security within the home is very important for dementia patients once confusion starts to take over their mind, so consider calling in a locksmith to take care of these two home alterations:

Install A Safe

One problem with dementia is it causes people to become forgetful. However, not only do people with dementia forget where they put things, but they also forget how to use everyday objects. The secondary problem with dementia is that unethical people such as burglars take advantage of their vulnerable state.

To make sure that valuable items such as passports, important papers and heirloom jewellery do not get misplaced or stolen arrange for the installation of a safe in your parent's home. Furthermore, arrange for the locksmith to bolt the safe to the floor during installation. By doing so, the safe cannot be picked up and walked away, which stops the movement of it by both your parent or a thief.

Change To Keyless Entry

Lost keys are an exercise in frustration for anyone, but particularly so for people whose brain is already confused. To make life easier for your parent when they want to enter their home, change the front door lock to one that takes less mental activity during use.

For example, you could have a smart home front door lock installed which uses a fingerprint or a touch-and-go card to unlock it. Alternatively, choose a lock which is opened by holding the cell phone up against the door. When you change the door lock to keyless entry, insert the entry device (phone or swipe card) into a holder attached to a lanyard for wearing around the neck. These devices are a lot easier to find due to their size, so are less likely to be lost by your parent.

One of the great things about these types of locks is that you can change them to PIN number entry during specific hours of the day. This means if you have carers or cleaners coming to the home, then they can only enter using the correct PIN number which you would control. This limits the chance of unauthorised entry to the home by people who are not supposed to be there.

Give your local locksmiths a call and get them to do a security assessment of your parent's home so they are kept secure as they get used to this new health issue.