Home Safety for Older Adults: A Family Organizing Guide
How to organize a respectful, room-by-room home safety review with your parent and turn it into a practical fix-it plan the family can share.
Coming home from hospital
The days around a hospital discharge are busy and confusing. A clear checklist, an up-to-date medicines list and a simple rota for the first two weeks make the return home safer and calmer for everyone.
Start here
- Go through the discharge checklist with the ward before the day of discharge.
- Write down every medicine, dose and time in the medication schedule.
- Plan who visits or calls each day for the first two weeks.
Turn this into a plan
Add 10 ready-made tasks for this situation to a free care space, with sensible dates, reminders and room for the whole family.
Tools for this
Hospital discharge checklist
Everything to ask and arrange before a relative comes home from hospital, with a name next to each task.
Medication schedule maker
List the medicines someone already takes and print a weekly tick chart for everyone who helps.
Fall risk self-check
12 yes/no questions from the CDC's STEADI program to see whether someone may be at risk of falling, with tips for each answer.
Weekly care schedule builder
Plan a week of care, see who does what, catch double-bookings and print or export the schedule.
Printables for this
Care visit handoff form
A short handover between helpers: what was done, what wasn't and what to watch for.
Weekly medication chart
A blank weekly chart to tick off each medicine and time of day.
Hospital discharge checklist
Questions for the ward and jobs to share out before someone comes home from hospital.
Hospital bag checklist
What to pack for a planned or emergency hospital stay.
Read next
How to Prepare for a Parent's Medical Appointments
How to organize before, during and after a parent's doctor visits so the appointment is calmer, more useful and easier to share with the family.
How to Assess a Parent's Care Needs (ADLs and IADLs)
A step-by-step way to work out how much help a parent needs with everyday activities, and how to use the answer to plan care.