Caring at Home
Older people are more vulnerable to infection and recover more slowly. Six habits that make the biggest difference, without turning the house into a hospital.
OMS Clinical Team
Product Specialists
Handwashing, changing gloves between tasks, cleaning frequently touched surfaces, handling laundry carefully, managing waste properly and staying away when you are ill. Those six habits prevent most household infections. Nothing here requires turning a home into a hospital.
Older people are more vulnerable to infection and tend to recover more slowly, and the signs can be subtle. Sudden confusion, a fall or unusual drowsiness can indicate infection in an older person before a temperature appears. If something seems out of character, it is worth speaking to a GP.
The most effective habit by a wide margin. Soap and water for 20 seconds before and after every care task. Sanitiser when hands look clean and no sink is nearby.
Wear them for bodily fluids, broken skin and known infections. Change them between tasks. Wearing one pair all day is worse than wearing none, because a used glove carries contamination to everything it touches.
These matter more than floors and worktops, because they are touched by hands many times a day. A daily wipe of the things hands land on does more than a weekly deep clean.
Used gloves, aprons, continence products and dressings go straight into a lined, lidded bin kept close to where care happens. Tie the bag before it is full rather than pressing waste down. If large volumes of continence waste are involved, your local authority may offer a separate collection, which is worth asking about.
The hardest one. If you have a cold, a stomach bug or a temperature, you are a risk to someone whose immune system is already working harder than yours. Arrange cover if you possibly can. For sickness or diarrhoea the usual advice is to stay away until 48 hours after symptoms stop.
You cannot look after someone else if you are unwell yourself. Asking for cover is part of caring well, not a failure of it.
District nurses can advise on infection prevention for a specific condition, and a GP practice can assess anything that concerns you. Carers UK and Age UK both run advice lines for practical and emotional support, and you can ask your local authority for a carer assessment in your own right.
Our home care essentials selection covers gloves, aprons, hand hygiene and surface wipes in one place.
Caring at Home
