5 Easy Ways to Protect Your Loved One from a Home Invasion

Taking the proper steps to protect your loved one from a home invasion, even if they have a caregiver, is key. Home invasions can have severe consequences, and unfortunately, they are on the rise among elderly individuals living at home.

Despite this, there are plenty of precautions you can take that will help keep you and your loved one safe!

1. First off, make sure all doors are locked when you are home. Install a peephole in the front door, and if you hear a knock, make sure you ask who it is and identify them. If you’re weary of your client opening the door for strangers, have a conversation with them about it first.

2. In high crime areas, windows require extra protection. Place Plexiglas or thin, plastic security film on both sides to strengthen the glass and prevent shattering.

3. If you live in a house with a gate, always keep the gate locked. The harder to make it for a stranger to get inside the perimeter of your loved one’s property, the higher the chance they’ll reconsider breaking in. Also, be sure to never, under any circumstance, leave the key to your client’s home under the doormat or in a nearby hiding spot, like a flower bed. You are risking both your own and their safety. Make sure that the minute you receive any copies of the key, you keep it on you at all times and pass along any extra copies of their direct family members.

4. If you can, convince your client or their family to purchase a home security system. Once installed, it will help fend off burglars, protect the home in cases of not only break-ins, but fires and suspicious motion in and around the home, and potentially save your life.

Above all, don’t assume that you’ll never experience a break-in or that it couldn’t happen to you. It happens millions of Americans each year, so as we gear up for spring cleaning, be sure you’re taking the matter into your own hands and reconsidering how safe your client or loved one’s home really is.