Independence: staying in your own home safely

Step by step

1. 1

   Step 1: Know what independence really rests on

   Not willpower. It rests on a handful of specific abilities: getting out of a chair and off the toilet, managing stairs, walking to the gate, carrying something while walking, and getting up again if you go down. Each of those can be practised.

   Learn more: Muscle strength and ageing
2. 2

   Step 2: Protect the one that matters most

   Rising from a chair without using your hands is the single ability most predictive of staying independent. Practise it deliberately: sit to stand a few times, slowly, most days. It is dull and it is the most valuable thing on this page.

   Learn more: Chair dance fitness: what it actually does for you
3. 3

   Step 3: Fix the house before it fixes you

   Clear floors, good light on stairs and the night route, a rail where you pull yourself up, non-slip in the bathroom, and everyday things within reach so you are not stretching or climbing. One change a week is enough.

   Learn more: Home safety checklist
4. 4

   Step 4: Do not let help quietly take your abilities away

   Families take over tasks out of love, and the ability goes with the task. If somebody else now carries the shopping, opens the jars and manages the money, those capacities fade. Keep doing what you can still do, and say so kindly when help goes too far.

   Learn more: Purpose, belonging and what makes life worth living after 60
5. 5

   Step 5: Plan while you are well, not during a crisis

   The hardest decisions get made in hospital corridors after a fall. Talk about what you would want, what would need changing, and who would do what, at a time when nothing is wrong. It is a far better conversation then.

   Learn more: Meaning and belonging in healthy ageing

All topics in this guide

• Muscle strength and ageing
• Chair dance fitness: what it actually does for you
• Home safety checklist
• Purpose, belonging and what makes life worth living after 60
• Meaning and belonging in healthy ageing

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