Is Mom Still Safe at Home?
The 10-Minute Family Safety Check
If something about Mom or Dad has you wondering, you don't have to figure everything out today. Start by looking at what you're actually seeing.
Maybe nothing dramatic has happened.
But you've noticed a few things — a missed appointment, confusion about medications, less food in the refrigerator, unopened mail, a fall, a new dent in the car, or simply more time alone.
Or maybe you just have that feeling: "Something is different."
First, Let's Figure Out What You're Actually Seeing
The FREE Family Safety Check will walk you through 10 important areas of everyday life, including medications, food and nutrition, falls and mobility, the condition of the home, bills and money, memory and thinking, driving, personal care, social connection, and emergency readiness.
You'll answer a few simple questions based on what you've noticed. At the end, you'll receive a summary that can help you see whether you're dealing with an isolated concern or whether several small changes may be forming a pattern.
Considering senior living and needing senior living are two very different things.
This isn't about making a decision today. It's about asking better questions before a crisis forces the family to make decisions quickly.
A Note From Fred
I created Senior Living Answers to help families think through the questions that often come before a senior-living decision. My goal isn't to tell you what decision to make. It's to help you ask better questions, recognize patterns, and make decisions with more information and less pressure.
Fred Van Ryn
Senior Living Answers with Fred Van Ryn
Important Information & Limitations
The Senior Living Answers Family Safety Check is provided solely for general educational and informational purposes. It is intended to help individuals and families organize their observations, recognize possible patterns of change, identify questions worth asking, and prepare for conversations with appropriate professionals.
This Safety Check is not a medical or professional assessment. It is not a substitute for an evaluation, diagnosis, treatment recommendation, or advice from a physician or other qualified healthcare professional. It is also not a cognitive screening test, mental-capacity evaluation, fall-risk assessment, driving evaluation, medication review, home-safety inspection, legal opinion, financial assessment, or determination of an individual's ability to live independently.
The Pattern Score is not a clinically validated score, diagnosis, prediction, or measure of an individual's safety or ability to remain at home. It is simply a way of organizing the answers provided to this questionnaire. A higher or lower score should not, by itself, be used to make decisions about medical care, caregiving, driving, finances, legal matters, housing, assisted living, memory care, or other senior-living arrangements.
The Safety Check is based entirely on information and observations supplied by the person completing it. Senior Living Answers and Fred Van Ryn do not independently verify that information and cannot determine from these answers whether an older adult is safe or unsafe.
Changes involving memory, judgment, behavior, mobility, medications, nutrition, personal care, mood, driving, finances, or everyday functioning can have many different causes. New, sudden, worsening, or concerning changes should be discussed with an appropriate qualified professional.
Do not delay seeking professional or emergency assistance because of information provided by this Safety Check. If you believe someone is in immediate danger, is experiencing a medical emergency, may harm themselves or someone else, or requires urgent assistance, call 911 or the appropriate local emergency service immediately.
By using the Family Safety Check, you acknowledge that its results are informational only and that decisions concerning an individual's health, safety, care, finances, driving, living arrangements, or legal affairs remain the responsibility of the individual, family, and appropriate qualified professionals.
Ready to begin?
The check is private, takes just a few minutes, and there is no obligation.