To ask for your tips for elderly relatives who struggle with eyesight

[elm26]

Hello

I have an great aunt who lives in an assisted living home and gets 3 proper meals a day, plus we take it in turns to visit in the week so she sees one of us and we take her out at least 3 times a week however she loves to make herself the odd ready made oven meal to eat whilst watching tv at night, with a cup of tea etc.

Her eyesight is getting worse and she is struggling to work out which dial on the oven if to turn it on and off, and she can't see how much water she is putting in a cup so she ends up with a quarter of a cup of tea and little things like that she is struggling with.

Where could I find things like textured stickers or anything like that, that I could put on her on/off button or something that she could see at an inch down from the top of her mug?

Or any ideas on how I can make life easier for her when she's on her own?

Thanks in advance x

I know it's controversial but if you can find her a mug with a coloured inside like red and she puts the milk in first that could provide a good contrast to help see what's going in.
The Macular society and support for sight has some good items on their website that may help. Support for sight might have a local meeting. My mum likes going to hers to get tips from other people.

Loads of info here:

www.rnib.org.uk/advice

But why is her vision deteriorating? Could there be a treatable cause that an optometrist could help with?

I read about some kind of alarm stick you can pop into a mug and when the liquid gets to a certain height it beeps. Here it is:

shop.rnib.org.uk/rnib-liquid-level-indicator-audible-vibratory?gclid=Cj0KCQjw0JiXBhCFARIsAOSAKqDO5tzRsR1jtcAaJzm8mh2dgJ3LZXyN5JbssQ_-f9RnBpa0eyH-0_EaAhtcEALw_wcB#fo_c=1594&fo_k=754ad276e785fcee4e07d1c9df910b3d&fo_s=gplauk

The one cup hot water dispenser was invaluable for mil. As was brightly coloured utensils and plates. Keep clutter to an absolute minimum and have good bright lighting. Large buttons with raised bumps/coloured dots.
rnib will also have lots of brilliant gadgets such as liquid level detectors etc.

There are a number of other items on the RNIB website. Perhaps there are other things that will make her life easier?

Thank you everyone.

She's 97 and that's what the optometrist said, it's just one of those things due to her old age.

Ask your Aunts permission, then when you are with her telephone in to refer her to sensory (sight) loss team at your local adult care (social) services. Arrange to be there when they make appointment- our local adult care dept have sight loss assessors who visit people at home who are struggling with their sight - they are brilliant - they advise on where to buy equipment and sometimes can supply some bits.

-Things like sensors that alert when a cup is filled up to 3/4 /full, talking clock, colour detector for clothes, etc.. all sorts of useful equipment.
It's really helpful.

In our family I've dotted a bit of white paint on oven dials to make it easier to see when on or off

You can buy a little device for clipping over the edge of a cup or mug. They alarm when to stop filling.