Is it considered a restraint? It's a bit difficult to figure out how bad my Dad's dementia is yet, but he is certainly unable or unwilling to remember to use his walker, and hence at a constant risk of falling. (He came home after a broken hip, and fell within three days.) Nor will he ask for help. So anytime we or caregiver look away or walk into other room he might stand up and fall.
You didn't seriously, honestly now, think that would be acceptable, did you?
It isn't that I don't sympathise. Goodness, what I would have given at times for a non-punitive way of tying my mother to her chair...
One borderline legal/ethical technique would be to get your father an over-chair table that he can't easily move out of the way when he wants to get up, so that he has to call for assistance. But even that is not okay for any length of time - make it too effective, and you are imposing a "Deprivation of Liberty" on your loved one which can get you into serious trouble. I also placed my mother's walking frame so that she had to either go round it or use it, which gave me a tiny bit of extra time to get there when the pressure alarm went off.
In the end, you have two unattractive choices: supervise him constantly, or accept the falls risk having minimised it as much as you possibly can. I did say they were unattractive.
I'm going to suggest you use the search box, type in "prevent falls", as any advice I have for you I would have learned from others on this site. Hopefully some others will chime in with their advice also.
My Dad didn't use his walker much until I bought him a rolling walker [4 wheels, hand brake, seat, basket]... he loved it, thus would use it more. To him it was the best thing since slice bread... my Dad was also an engineer, and inventor. If he was younger, he'd probably invent something to make life easier for elders.
Now mind you, occasionally Dad would forget to use his walker, it is just something elder will do. And there is no way for caregivers to be glued to the hip to make sure they don't fall. Just hope it is a soft landing.
If your dad is a blob, then talk to the docs about titrating the meds. It CAN be done.
NEVER leave a patient UNATTENDED in a hoist lift.
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