After your parent has a stroke and is home from the hospital, you may want to consider making some changes around the house to make it easier for him or her to get around independently. The changes you make will help your parent function as normal as possible while he or she recovers and lives with the after-effects of the stroke. Here are three ideas that may help your parent with mobility.

Hire Home Health Services

Many seniors prefer living alone at home for as long as possible, even if they are suffering from health or mobility issues. To help your parent get along at home, it might be wise to hire home health services for him or her. This does not have to be a daily service, but having someone come into the home three or four times a week might be very helpful for your parent.

The home health services could help your parent with many things, including:

• Bathing and personal care activities
• Grocery shopping and errand running
• Meal preparation
• Medication
• Exercising

Home health services also provide companionship services, which can be highly beneficial for a senior that lives alone. This can also give you peace of mind, knowing that someone is routinely checking up on your parent and helping him or her.

Install a Stair Lift

If your parent's home has stairs that he or she needs to use, having a stair lift installed is one idea to consider. A stair lift attaches to the wall next to a stairway, and it allows a person to ride up or down the stairs in a chair.

Stair lifts eliminate the risks seniors take when using stairs and are easy to use. A person must simply sit down in the chair and push a button. The motor inside the lift moves the chair up or down the stairs, and this is the safest way for a senior to use stairs.

Make the House Wheelchair Accessible

Strokes often leave people paralyzed on one side of their bodies. Because of this, moving around can be hard to do, and this may leave your parent confined to a wheelchair most of the time.  Maneuvering through a house in a wheelchair can be difficult if the house is small and has narrow doors.

Hiring a construction contractor to make some minor changes might be all you need to do to help your parent move around in the house. The changes might include:

• Widening the doorways – Standard doorways are usually around 32-inches, which might be enough for your parent to squeeze through, but having 36-inch openings will make the task so much easier.
• Converting the tub – Tub conversions are commonly completed for seniors and people with mobility issues, and your contractor can do this by replacing the tub with a shower. A shower is easier to get in and out of, and you can place a chair in it to make bathing easier for your parent.
• Adding a wheelchair ramp – Installing a ramp can be a lot of work, but it is something that will help your mom or dad get in and out of the house with less effort.

Construction contractors can do all these things for you, and they may also have more ideas for you.

As you look for ways to make your parent's home easier to move through, you may also want to talk to a store that sells home mobility aids, like those at http://www.twincitystairlifts.com. They may be able to provide you with ideas and options that are just right for your parent, and all these ideas may help your parent stay living independently and happy for many more years.