OT for elderly lady, do they help with steps in garden and who to contact

vikki_louise

My elderly neighbour who lives alone loves spending time in her garden but has been concerned about the big steps to get up to it for a long time). she has a tiny patio and then steps up to the actual garden). Early this morning my parents got a call to say she had fallen and went over, she managed to get herself up but has hurt her shoulder and covered in cuts (face, arms and legs).

I was wondering if an OT would help, I'm not sure what can be done but some railings or something to hold onto when going up or down. Going into her garden brings her so much joy it would be a real shame if she stopped. She owns the house but has very little money.

Who should I contact?

pmlindyloo

Have a read of this:

http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/family/grant-grabbing

Scroll down to the Top Home Grants. There might be something there to help.

Owain_Moneysaver

Social Services / Social Work dept at the local council.

colin13

i got a half way step ayt my front door,what a diffrence it mnade,thay were going to fit rails as well ,butt i have hand grabs at foor and they help big time,the o.t siggested this,but will only do 1 exit,they say that is ur firew escape

tanith

I second Social Services, they came into an elderly friend when she fell in the bath and installed lots of things to make her house safer for her.. no charge for the work and she is just so happy now her bathroom is safer.

Errata

Councils will do many things that are essential, but they may not consider accessing a garden essential if the occupier can access the patio without difficulty.

margaretclare

In the light of what Errata writes above, I've been thinking about these 'big steps'. If you got a small local tradesman, local small builder etc, depending on the depth as well as the height, it might be possible to make shallow steps in between the 'big steps'. This would be a fairly small job for anyone who knew what they were doing.

I understand about this. I can't do 'big steps' either - think steps up into a holiday coach! - and we've recently had shallow steps made down into our garden to replace a concrete slope which got slippery and was dangerous in wet weather. There are small tradesmen about who will do a discounted price for retired people. Our local builder got round it by not charging us VAT (ssssshhhhh!)